Karl Barth (May 10, 1886 – December 10, 1968) (pronounced "bart") a Swiss Reformed theologian, was one of the most influential
Christian thinkers of the 20th century.[citation needed] Beginning with his experience as a pastor, he became one of the founding
fathers of the Neo-Orthodox movement, which assumed prominence in Christian thought
between the two World Wars.[citation needed]
Early life and education
Born in Basel, Barth spent his childhood years in Bern. From
1911 to 1921 he served as a Reformed pastor in the village of Safenwil in the canton Aargau. In 1913 he married Nelly Hoffman, a talented
violinist. They would have four sons and a daughter. Later he was professor of theology in
Göttingen (1921–1925),
Münster (1925–1930) and
Bonn (1930–1935) (Germany). While serving at Göttingen he first met Charlotte von
Kirschbaum, who became his long time secretary. He had to leave Germany in 1935 after he
refused to swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler. Barth went back to Switzerland and became professor in Basel (1935–1962).
Barth was originally trained in German Protestant Liberalism under such teachers as Wilhelm Herrmann, but
reacted against this theology at the time of the First World War. His reaction was fed by
several factors, including his commitment to the German and Swiss Religious Socialist movement surrounding men like Hermann Kutter, the influence of the Biblical Realism movement
surrounding men like Christoph Blumhardt and Søren Kierkegaard, and the impact of the skeptical philosophy of
Franz Overbeck.
The most important catalyst was, however, his reaction to the support most of his liberal teachers had for German war aims.
The 1914 "Manifesto of the Ninety-Three German Intellectuals to the Civilized World"[1] carried the signature of
his former teacher Adolf von Harnack. Barth believed that his teachers had been misled
by a theology which tied God too closely to the finest, deepest expressions and experiences of
cultured human beings, into claiming divine support for a war which they believed was waged in
support of that culture, the initial experience of which appeared to increase people's love of and commitment to that culture.
Much of Barth's thinking is also a direct response to the philosophy of G.W.F.
Hegel and the theology of Friedrich Schleiermacher.
Epistle to the Romans
In his commentary The Epistle to the Romans (germ.
Römerbrief; particularly in the thoroughly re-written second edition of 1922) Barth argued
that the God who is revealed in the cross of Jesus challenges and overthrows any attempt to ally
God with human cultures, achievements, or possessions. Many theologians believe this work to be the most important theological
treatise since Friedrich Schleiermacher's .
In the decade following the First World War, Barth was linked with a number of other theologians, actually very diverse in
outlook, who had reacted against their teachers' liberalism, in a movement known as "Dialectical
Theology" (germ. Dialektische Theologie). Other members of the movement included Rudolf Bultmann, Eduard Thurneysen, Emil
Brunner, and Friedrich Gogarten.
Barmen Declaration
In 1934, as the Protestant Church attempted to come to terms with the Third Reich, Barth
was largely responsible for the writing of the Barmen declaration (germ. Barmer
Erklärung) which rejected the influence of Nazism on German Christianity—arguing that the
Church's allegiance to the God of Jesus Christ should give it the impetus and resources to resist
the influence of other 'lords'—such as the German Führer, Adolf Hitler. Barth mailed
this declaration to Hitler personally. This was one of the founding documents of the Confessing Church and Barth was elected a member of its leadership council, the Bruderrat. He was forced to resign from his professorship at the university of Bonn for refusing to swear an
oath to Hitler and returned to his native Switzerland, where he assumed a chair in systematic theology at the university of
Basel. In the course of his appointment he was required to answer a routine question asked of all Swiss civil servants, whether
he supported the national defense. His answer was, "Yes, especially on the northern border!" In 1938 he wrote a letter to a Czech
colleague, Josef Hromádka, in which he declared that soldiers who fought against the Third Reich were serving a Christian
cause.
Church dogmatics
Barth's theology found its most sustained and compelling expression through his thirteen-volume magnum opus, the Church
Dogmatics (Germ. "Kirchliche Dogmatik"). Widely regarded as an important theological work, the Church Dogmatics
represents the pinnacle of Barth's achievement as a theologian. Barth published the first part-volume of the Dogmatics in 1932
and continued working on it until his death in 1968, by which time it was 6 million words long in thirteen part-volumes. Highly
contextual, the volumes are written chronologically, beginning with Vol. I/1, and address political issues (generally quite
subtly) as well as questions raised by his students after lectures. (The material published as the Church Dogmatics was
originally delivered in lecture format to students at Bonn and then Basel.) Barth explores the whole of Christian
doctrine, where necessary challenging and reinterpreting it so that every part of it points to
the radical challenge of Jesus Christ, and the impossibility of tying God to human cultures, achievements or possessions. It was
translated into English under the editorial leadership of T. F. Torrance and
G. W. Bromiley.
Later life
Barth on the April 20, 1962 cover of
TIME magazine
After the end of the Second World War, Barth became an important voice in support both
of German penitence and of reconciliation with churches abroad. Together with Hans-Joachim Iwand,
he authored the Darmstadt Statement in 1947, which was a more concrete statement of German guilt
and responsibility for the Third Reich and Second World War than the Stuttgart Declaration of
1945. In it, he made the point that the Church's willingness to side with anti-socialist and conservative forces had led to its
susceptibility for National Socialist ideology. In the context of the developing Cold War, this
controversial statement was rejected by anti-Communists in the West, who supported the CDU course of re-militarization, as well as by East German dissidents who believed
that it did not sufficiently depict the dangers of Communism. In the 1950s, Barth sympathized
with the peace movement and opposed German rearmament. Barth taught for a time at
Duke University. [1]
Barth wrote a 1960 article for The Christian Century regarding the
"East-West question", in which he denied any inclination toward Eastern communism, and stated he did not wish to live under
Communism nor did he wish anyone to be forced to do so, but acknowledged a fundamental disagreement with most of those around him
and wrote: "I do not comprehend how either politics or Christianity require or even permit such a disinclination to lead to the
conclusions which the West has drawn with increasing sharpness in the past 15 years. I regard anticommunism as a matter of
principle an evil even greater than commnism itself."[2]
In 1962, Barth visited the USA, where he lectured at Princeton Theological
Seminary, University of Chicago, and San Francisco Theological Seminary. He
was invited to be a guest at the Second Vatican Council, but could not attend due
to illness.
Theology
Barth tries to recover the Doctrine of the Trinity in theology from its putative loss in liberalism. His argument follows from the idea that God is the object of God’s own self-knowledge,
and revelation in the Bible means the self-unveiling to
humanity of the God who cannot be discovered by humanity simply through its own efforts.
Note here that the Bible is not the Revelation; rather, it points to revelation.
Barth, Liberals and Conservatives
Although Barth's theology rejected German Protestant Liberalism, his theology has usually not found favour with those at the
other end of the theological spectrum: confessionalists, evangelicals and fundamentalists. His doctrine of the Word of God, for
instance, does not proceed by arguing or proclaiming that the Bible must be uniformly historically
and scientifically accurate, and then establishing other theological claims on that foundation.
Some evangelical and fundamentalist critics
have often referred to Barth as "neo-orthodox" because, while his theology retains most or
all of the tenets of Christianity, he is seen as rejecting the belief which is a linchpin
of their theological system: biblical inerrancy. (It was for this belief that Barth
was criticized most harshly by the conservative evangelical theologian Francis
Schaeffer, who was a student of strident Barthian critic Cornelius Van Til.)
Such critics regard proclaiming a rigorous Christian theology without basing that theology on a supporting text that is
considered to be historically accurate as a separation of theological truth from historical truth.[citation needed] Barthians respond by saying that the
claim that the foundation of theology is biblical inerrancy is to use a foundation other than Jesus Christ, and that our
understanding of Scripture's accuracy and worth can only properly emerge from consideration of what it means for it to be a true
witness to the incarnate Word, Jesus.[citation needed]
The relationship between Barth, liberalism and fundamentalism goes far beyond the issue of inerrancy, however. From Barth's
perspective, liberalism, as understood in the sense of the 19th century with Friedrich Schleiermacher and Hegel as its leading exponents and not necessarily expressed in any political ideology, is
the divinization of human thinking. This, to him, inevitably leads one or more philosophical concepts to become the false God,
thus blocking the true voice of the living God. This, in turn, leads to the captivity of theology by human ideology. In Barth's
theology, he emphasizes again and again that human concepts of any kind, breadth or narrowness quite beside the point, can never
be considered as identical to God's revelation. In this aspect, Scripture is also written human language, expressing human
concepts. It cannot be considered as identical to God's revelation. However, in His freedom and love, God truly reveals Himself
through human language and concepts, with a view toward their necessity in reaching fallen humanity. Thus Barth claims that
Christ is truly presented in Scripture and the preaching of the church, echoing a stand expressed in his native Swiss Reformed
Church's Helvetic Confession of the 16th century.
In general, Barth stands in the heritage of the Reformation in his opposition against attempts to closely relate theology and
philosophy. His approach in that respect is termed "kerygmatic," as opposed to "apologetic."
Quotations
- "The best theology would need no advocates: it would prove itself."
- "Belief cannot argue with unbelief, it can only preach to it."
- “There is a notion that complete impartiality is the most fitting and indeed the normal disposition for true exegesis,
because it guarantees complete absence of prejudice. For a short time, around 1910, this idea threatened to achieve almost a
canonical status in Protestant theology. But now, we can quite calmly describe it as merely comical. ” (Church Dogmatics 1:2,
469)
- "The center is not something which is under our control, but something that controls us. ” (Church Dogmatics)
- "Barth’s dedication to the sole authority and power of the Word of God was illustrated for us… while we were in Basel. Barth
was engaged in a dispute over the stained glass windows in the Basel Münster. The windows had been removed during World War II
for fear they would be destroyed by bombs, and Barth was resisting the attempt to restore them to the church. His contention was
that the church did not need portrayals of the gospel story given by stained glass windows. The gospel came to the church only
through the Word proclaimed. …the incident was typical of Barth’s sole dedication to the Word. "
Elizabeth Achtemeier
- "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world."
- "In the Resurrection the new world of the Holy Spirit touches the old world of the flesh, but touches it as a tangent touches
a circle, that is, without touching it." (Barth 1933, p. 30)
- "What expressions we used — in part taken over and in part newly invented! — above all, the famous ‘wholly other’ breaking in
upon us ‘perpendicularly from above,’ the not less famous ‘infinite qualitative distinction’ between God and man, the vacuum, the
mathematical point, and the tangent in which alone they must meet." (Barth 1960, p. 42)
- "It may be that when the angels go about their task of praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they
are together en famille they play Mozart and that then too our dear Lord listens with special pleasure."
- Once a young student asked Barth if he could sum up what was most important about his life's work and theology in just a few
words. The question was posed even with gasps from the audience. Barth just thought for a moment and then smiled, "Yes, in the
words of a song my mother used to sing me, 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.'"[2]
Writings by Karl Barth
- The Epistle to the Romans ISBN 0-19-500294-6
- Preaching Through the Christian Year ISBN 0-8028-1725-4
- God Here and Now
- Fides Quaerens Intellectum: Anselm's Proof of the Existence of God in the Context of His Theological Scheme, John Knox
(1960); reprinted by Pickwick Publications (1985) ISBN 0-915138-75-1
- Evangelical Theology: An Introduction
- Church and State
- The Humanity of God, 1960, John Knox Press, ISBN 0-8042-0612-0
- The Christian Life , posthumous lecture fragments, ISBN 0-567-09320-4, ISBN 0-8028-3523-6
- The Word in this World: Two Sermons by Karl Barth. Edited by Kurt I. Johanson. Regent Publishing (Vancouver, BC,
Canada): 2007
- "No Angeles of Darkness and Light", The Christian Century, 20 January 1960, p. 72 (reprinted in Contemporary Moral
Issues, Second Edition, Harry K. Girvetz, editor. Wadsworth Publishing Company, Inc., 1968)
The Church Dogmatics in English translation
- Volume I Part 1: Doctrine of the Word of God: Prolegomena to Church Dogmatics, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09013-2,
softcover: ISBN 0-567-05059-9
- Volume I Part 2: Doctrine of the Word of God, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09012-4, softcover: ISBN 0-567-05069-6
- Volume II Part 1: The Doctrine of God: The Knowledge of God; The Reality of God, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09021-3,
softcover: ISBN 0-567-05169-2
- Volume II Part 2: The Doctrine of God: The Election of God; The Command of God, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09022-1,
softcover: ISBN 0-567-05179-X
- Volume III Part 1: The Doctrine of Creation: The Work of Creation, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09031-0, softcover: ISBN
0-567-05079-3
- Volume III Part 2: The Doctrine of Creation: The Creature, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09032-9, softcover: ISBN
0-567-05089-0
- Volume III Part 3: The Doctrine of Creation: The Creator and His Creature, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09033-7, softcover:
ISBN 0-567-05099-8
- Volume III Part 4: The Doctrine of Creation: : The Command of God the Creator, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09034-5,
softcover: ISBN 0-567-05109-9
- Volume IV Part 1: The Doctrine of Reconciliation, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09041-8, softcover: ISBN 0-567-05129-3
- Volume IV Part 2: Doctrine of Reconciliation: Jesus Christ the Servant As Lord, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09042-6,
softcover: ISBN 0-567-05139-0
- Volume IV Part 3, 1st half: Doctrine of Reconciliation: Jesus Christ the True Witness, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09043-4,
softcover: ISBN 0-567-05189-7
- Volume IV Part 3, 2nd half: Doctrine of Reconciliation: Jesus Christ the True Witness, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09044-2,
softcover: ISBN 0-567-05149-8
- Volume IV Part 4 (unfinished): Doctrine of Reconciliation: The Foundation of the Christian Life (Baptism), hardcover:
ISBN 0-567-09045-0, softcover: ISBN 0-567-05159-5
- Volume V: Church Dogmatics: Contents and Indexes, hardcover: ISBN 0-567-09046-9, softcover: ISBN 0-567-05119-6
- Church Dogmatics, 14 volume set, softcover, ISBN 0-567-05809-3
- Dogmatics in Outline, (1947 lectures), Harper Perennial, 1959, ISBN 0-06-130056-X
- Church Dogmatics: A Selection, with intro. by H. Gollwitzer, 1961, Westminster John Knox Press 1994 edition, ISBN
0-664-25550-7
- Church Dogmatics, dual language German and English, books with CDROM, ISBN 0-567-08374-8
- Church Dogmatics, dual language German and English, CDROM only, ISBN 0-567-08364-0
Audio
Secondary bibliography
- Timothy Bradshaw, Trinity and ontology: a comparative study of the
theologies of Karl Barth and Wolfhart Pannenberg (Edinburgh: Rutherford House Books, 1988) reprint edn. (Lewiston;
Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press for Rutherford House, Edinburgh, 1992)
- Bromiley, Geoffrey William. 1979. An introduction to the theology of Karl Barth. Grand Rapids, Mich. : William B.
Eerdmans Pub. Co.,
- Mark Galli (2000). "Neo-Orthodoxy: Karl Barth". Christianity Today.
- "Witness to an
Ancient Truth", TIME, April 20, 1962.
- A. J. Murray. Ashes and Diamonds.
(Kirkcaldy: MOBFP, 2007)
- Mangina, Joseph L., Karl Barth: Theologian of Christian Witness. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2004.
- McCormack, Bruce Karl Barth’s Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology: Its Genesis and Development, 1909–1936 :
Oxford University Press, USA (March 27, 1997), ISBN 978-0198269564
References
External links
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