Bach? Profondément respectable!

Beethoven? Hautement admirable!

Tel autre, ou tel autre?

Plus ou moins remarquable! Mozart? Aimable!

Mozart teaches us the sovereignty of the true servant.

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Life & Work (1886-1968)

•  Introduction

–  Der Römerbrief (1919;1922)

–  The Göttingen Dogmatics (1921) (*)

–  Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung (1934)

–  Barth-Brunner Debate (1934)

–  Die Kirchliche Dogmatik (1932-1967) (*)

•  Resources

•  Reception

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Protestant Theology: Moments of Transition

–  Protestant Reformation (16th-17th Century)

–  Enlightenment (18th Century)

•  Deism

–  Liberalism (19th century)

•  Schleiermacher, Ritschl, and Von Harnack

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Life & Work (1886-1968)

•  Born / Died: Basel, Switzerland

•  Studied Theology: Univ. of Bern, Berlin, Tübingen, Marburg)

•  Pastor: Geneva (1909-11), Safenwil (1911-21)

•  Theologian: University of Göttingen (1921—24); Univ. of Münster (1925-30); Univ. of Bonn (1930-35 [deposed by nazi’s]); Univ. of Basel (1935-1962).

•  Principal author of The Barmen Declaration (1934).

•  Intellectual Leader of German Confessional Church (the Protestant group that resisted the Third Reich)

•  Married in 1913 Nelly Hoffman, a member of his first-year confirmation class in Geneva.

•  Met Charlotte von Kirschbaum (“Lollo”) who became his long-time assistant and confidante from 1924-1968. Quaestio, Qui scripsit Kirchliche Dogmatik?

•  Notable Works: Der Römerbrief and Kirchliche Dogmatik

–  Barth’s writings have been translated into nearly every European language, as well as Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and more.

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Life & Work (1886-1968)

•  Faith tradition: Reformed, Neo-orthodoxy, Christian socialism

Notable events:

•  Barth-Brunner debate (1934)

•  Important voice of German penitence and Reconciliation after the end of WWII

•  Delivered main address 1st assembly world council of churches, Amsterdam (1948)

•  Rejecter of nuclear arms race

•  Critical solidarity of Christians east & west Germany

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Life & Work (1886-1968)    

Notable events (cont’):

•  Visited USA for the first time in 1962 (just after his retirement) and lectured at Univ. of Chicago, Princeton theol. Seminary (met briefly with Martin Luther King), union theol. Sem, and san Francisco theol. Sem.

•  Featured on the cover of the Time magazine, which manifested that his influence had reached into mainstream American religious culture.

•  In final phone conversation—the evening before his death by saying to Eduard Thurneysen (1888-1974, Swiss theologian and longtime friend),

–  “Just don’t be so down in the mouth, now! Not ever! For things are ruled, not just in Moscow or in Washington or in Peking, but things are ruled – even here on earth- entirely from above, from heaven above.”

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Der Römerbrief

•  Safenwil Pastorate (1911-1921)

•  Commentary The Epistle to the Romans

–  The commentaries (1919 and rewritten 1922 edition; 1933 English edition) were unusual for their biblical and dialectical theology and their open attacks on humanism. Barth contradicted liberal theologians who considered scripture little more than an account of human religious experience, and who were concerned only with the historic personality of Jesus. In the Epistle to the Romans Barth argued that God challenges and overthrows any attempt to ally him with human cultures, achievements, or possessions. Barth wrote that in scripture we find “divine thoughts about men, not human thoughts about God.”

–  Impetus of dialectic theology

–  Bultmann, “The book attempts to prove the independence and the absolute nature of religion. It thus takes its place, even though it is in the form of a commentary, in the same line with such works as Schleiermacher’s On Religion and Otto’s The Idea of the Holy, with modern attempts to demonstrate a religious a priori… "

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Der Römerbrief : Transitional moments

–  Martin Luther (1483 – 1546)

•  Re-discovery doctrine of justification

–  John Calvin (1509-1564)

•  First Commentary (1540)

–  Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609)

•  Alternative to Reformed orthodox concerning doctrine of predestination

–  Moïse Amyraut (1596-1664)

•  Alternative to Reformed orthodoxy and Remonstrant theology hypothetical universalism (Amyraldism)

–  Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrugge (1803-1875)

•  Roman 7 (Man can not save himself from sin and evil, since he's nothing more than 'flesh': only Christ can save him – Kohlbrugge was accused of antinomianism)

•  Karl Barth would call Kohlbrugge one of the greatest theologians of all time.

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  The Göttingen Dogmatics (1921)

•  Barth’s teaching of Dogmatics (Syst. Theol)

–  Univ. of Göttingen,1924-25

•  Untericht in der Christlichen Religion*

–  Univ. of Münster, 1926-27

–  Univ. of Bonn, 1927-31

–  Univ. of Basel, 1935-61(Die Kirchliche Dogmatik)

* Instruction in the Christian Religion (“calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion)

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  The Göttingen Dogmatics (1921)

•  Before teaching Dogmatics at univ. Göttingen

–  Heidelberg Catechism

–  Reformed Confessions (“the mysteries of Reformed theol.”)

–  Calvin (“A waterfall, a primitive forest, a demonic power, something straight down from the Himalayas, absolutely Chinese, strange mythological; I just don’t have the organs…even to assimilate this phenomenon, let alone to describe it properly”)

–  Zwingli

–  Schleiermacher

–  NT Lectures (I Cor., Ephesians, I John)

“Aware of need to study classical theological texts”

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  The Göttingen Dogmatics (1921)

•  Opens Göttingen lecture cycle with prayer

–  Thomas Aquinas’ superscript Summa Theologica

•  “Dogmatics in the Service of Preaching”

•  Dogmatics Chapter “Diktatsatz” and Division –  Prolegomena

–  Theology proper (doctrine of God)

–  Anthropology

–  Reconciliation

–  redemption

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  The Göttingen Dogmatics (1921)

•  Dialectic theology

–  Barth distinguished three ways of speaking of God •  Orthodoxy or “Dogmatism”

•  Mysticism

•  Dialectic

–  “The living truth of God that cannot be named directly is appropriately acknowledged by a continuous movement of thought between Yes and No, the Glory and the Concealment of God”

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  The Göttingen Dogmatics (1921)

•  Dialectic theology •  holding against rationalism that one's attempts to know God by

one's own reasoning reach contradictory conclusions and must give way to a faith that awaits God's word

–  Barth deploys four senses of “dialectic”

–  (1) Dialectic of Concepts

–  (2) Dialectic of Existence

–  (3) Dialectic of Revelation

–  (4) Dialectic as a Theological method

•  In the Göttingen Dogmatics Barth offers a dialectical reading of the Reformed theological tradition

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung (1934)

•  Barth is Principal author of Barmen Declaration

–  Synod at Barmen (1934) opposing Nazi government (National Socialist regime) and rejects

–  (i) the subordination of the Church to the State

–  (ii) the subordination of the Word and Spirit to the Church.

•  One of the main purposes of the Declaration was to establish for the Confessional churches a three-church (Lutheran, Reformed, United) confessional consensus opposing pro-nazi "German Christianity".

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Barth-Brunner Debate (1934)

•  The heart of the debate is whether one can attain knowledge of God "naturaliter" or whether, on the other hand, the grace of God is strictly required for that.

–  Barth is very clear in stating that there is no way to knowledge of God by way of human reason - in other words, there is absolutely no source of authority aside from the Word of God.

–  For Brunner instead, natural theology is the result of the theoretical (formal) possibility for humanity of "being addressed" by God (ability to hear the Word of God). The actual (material) realization of this depends on Grace. hence, Brunner maintains, the traditional doctrine of sola gratia is not endangered by this conception of natural theology.

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Die Kirchliche Dogmatik

•  Published between 1932-1967

•  13 volumes

•  + 9000 pages

•  + 6,000,000 words

•  Church Dogmatics addresses four major doctrines: Revelation, God, Creation, and Atonement or Reconciliation.

•  Barth made it his task “to take all that has been said before and to think it through once more and freshly to articulate it anew as a theology of the grace of God in Jesus Christ.”

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Die Kirchliche Dogmatik

•  Widely regarded as one of the most important theological works of the century

•  Written Contextual & written chronologically

•  Each volume reacts (in part) to a number of influences:

–  concurrent political issues, questions raised by his students after lectures, and refutations of other academic Christians with opposing views.

•  The material published as the Church Dogmatics was originally delivered in lecture format to students at Bonn (1932) and then Basel (1935–1962), with his final incomplete volume (IV.4) produced in 1967 outside the realm of academia

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Die Kirchliche Dogmatik

•  II.2 Doctrine of Election

•  Reject: Decretum Absolutum

–  Reformed Orthodoxy: God decreed to elect some of humanity and passed others by (For example, Canones Synodi Dordrechtanae 1618/19 I.6, 7)

•  Propose: God elects Christ

–  Reformed Orthodoxy: God elects some of humanity for salvation

•  Propose: all humanity is “elect: in Christ

–  Reformed orthodoxy: Divine double decree fork at point of election (eternal life / damnation)

•  Affirms: Supralapsarian view of the divine decrees

–  Reformed orthodoxy: Both infra- and supralapsarian position

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Key Concepts of Barth’s Theology

•  Threefold Word of God: Revealed in Christ, Scripture and Preaching – Bible is "the word of God" but not "the words of God". The text becomes the Word of God

through divine direction (God is free)

•  Doctrine of Election

–  rejection of the notion of an absolute decree

–  Universalism?

•  Rejection of Natural Theology

•  Rejection of Apologetics

•  Existentialism — the idea that the decision to become a Christian is not a rational decision but a ‘leap of faith’ (Kierkegaard)

•  A emphasis on the transcendence of God with a strong critique of systems that believed in immanence of God

•  Mariology: Except veneration agreed with Roman Catholic teachings

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Key Concepts of Barth’s Theology

•  Threefold Word of God: Revealed in Christ, Scripture and Preaching – Bible is "the word of God" but not "the words of God". The text becomes the Word of God

through divine direction (God is free)

•  Doctrine of Election

–  rejection of the notion of an absolute decree

–  Universalism?

•  Rejection of Natural Theology

•  Rejection of Apologetics

•  Rejection of Infant baptism and re-baptism

•  Existentialism — the idea that the decision to become a Christian is not a rational decision but a ‘leap of faith’ (Kierkegaard)

•  A emphasis on the transcendence of God with a strong critique of systems that believed in immanence of God

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Resources

–  Karl Barth Archive: Located in Barth’s former residence in Basel, Switzerland, is the research and editorial center for the administration and publication of the Collected Works of Karl Barth.

–  Center for Barth Studies: Located at the Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, was established in 1997. Its mission is to promote interest in Karl Barth’s theology

–  Karl Barth Society of North America: Founded in 1972, aims to encourage a critical and constructive theology in continuity with the work of Karl Barth.  

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Resources

–  The Digital Karl Barth Library is an online collection of Karl Barth’s works, published by Alexander Street Press in association with the Theologischer Verlag Zürich (TVZ) and Princeton Theological Seminary.

–  Barth Literature Search Project (see right column)

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Reception

•  Barth's theology rejected German Protestant liberalism

•  “Father of Neo Orthodoxy”

•  Rejected by Fundamentalist

•  Rejected by Liberals

•  a profound impact on twentieth century theology and figures such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr, Jürgen Moltmann, and novelists such as John Updike (Roger’s Version, 1986), Marilynne Robinson's (Gilead,2004)

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Protestant Theology: Moments of Transition

–  Protestant Reformation (16th-17th Century)

–  Enlightenment (18th Century)

•  Deism

–  Liberalism (19th century)

•  Schleiermacher, Ritschl, and Von Harnack

–  Neo-orthodoxy or crisis theology & Fundamentalism

Karl  Barth  Seminar  

•  Conclusion

–  Barth’s writings against the background of late 19th and early 20th century Liberalism and Liberal Protestant theology

–  Barth’s writings against a trajectory of classical reformed theology

–  Read with discernment

–  Post-Bartian era or reassessment?