The Essential Karl Barth

A Reader and Commentary

Johnson, Keith L.

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781493416998
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

Karl Barth is one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. His work is considered essential reading for nearly every student of theology. Reading Barth's theology poses a challenge, however, because of the sheer size of his corpus, the complexity of his claims, and the distance between his context and the context of his readers. In this accessible introduction, a respected scholar in Barthian studies offers a one-stop resource on Barth's thought, providing a selection of his most important writings, critical commentary, and detailed introductory and concluding chapters.

CHAPTER
1
Introduction

The Life of Karl Barth

Karl Barth was born on May 10, 1886, in Basel, Switzerland, to Johann Friedrich (Fritz) and Katharina (Anna) Barth.1 His parents’ home was shaped by their intellectual interests and theological heritage. Fritz Barth served as a Reformed minister before joining the faculty of theology at the University of Bern, where he moved his family when Karl was three years old. He eventually became a well-respected professor of church history and New Testament, and he held the position for twenty-three years. His scholarly demeanor left a lifelong impression on his son, who respected him and looked up to him. Anna Barth was a well-educated pastor’s daughter, and several of her family members had served as theologians in Basel. As the son of a professor, Karl spent much of his childhood reading, learning, and talking with the plethora of interesting guests who visited the Barth home. He received a good education, and later he described his younger self as a “bookworm.”2 Karl was most interested in studying literature, poetry, and history, and these subjects remained passions for his entire life. As he grew into adulthood, he enjoyed reading detective novels before bed and studying the history of the American Civil War. He also developed a deep appreciation for music, particularly the work of Mozart.

His turn toward theology began at the age of thirteen as the result of his confirmation classes. Barth later recalled, “At the end of the classes I realized clearly the need to know more about the matter. On this rudimentary basis, I resolved to study theology.”3 In 1904, Barth enrolled at the University of Bern, where his father worked. He studied philosophy, the history of religion, church history, and Scripture. He proved to be a hardworking and intelligent student, and after two years in Bern, he sought advanced theological study in Germany. After some negotiation with his father, he ended up at the University of Berlin, where he studied under Adolf von Harnack. Barth spent the next few years moving around to different universities while interning at Swiss churches during the summers. After Berlin, he returned to Bern for a semester and then spent a semester in Tübingen before finally settling into the University of Marburg, where he studied with the theologian and ethicist Wilhelm Hermann. This tour of German universities exposed Barth to several major figures and ideas that shaped Protestant theology in the early years of the twentieth century. His teachers represented a mature and highly developed form of the liberal Protestant tradition that had been shaped by the thought of figures ranging from Immanuel Kant to Friedrich Schleiermacher to David Friedrich Strauss. Barth’s university education gave him a strong background in the scientific method, a historical-critical approach to Scripture, and a liberal Protestant theology grounded on human religious experience.

After completing his university studies in 1908, Barth took a position as an assistant editor for the journal Die Christliche Welt (The Christian World) under the leadership of prominent liberal thinker Martin Rade. At this point in Barth’s life, further academic work did not seem to be on the horizon. After being ordained for Christian ministry, Barth accepted his first church position by becoming the assistant pastor in a Reformed congregation in Geneva in 1909. He remained in Geneva for two years before accepting a pastorate in the small village of Safenwil, in the Aargau region of Switzerland, in 1911.

Barth stayed in Safenwil for over a decade, and these turned out to be among the most important years of his life. In 1913, Barth married Nelly Hoffmann, who had been a member of one of his confirmation classes in Geneva. They soon began a family that would grow to five children. In addition to his growing family responsibilities, Barth dedicated himself to his pastoral work. He found the realities of pastoral life both formative and surprising. He quickly learned that much of his classroom training did not translate into the village pulpit, and he found himself struggling to figure out what to say in his sermons. The disconnect between his training and ministry stemmed, in part, from the deep connection he felt with his congregants. Many of them worked in difficult conditions in local industries, and the bookish knowledge he had gained at the university provided little help as he sought to address the social and economic pressures they faced. He turned to the growing Christian socialist movement for insights, and soon he was taking an active role in workers’ disputes on behalf of his congregants. Locals even began calling Barth “The Red Pastor” because of his political activities.

During these years the most significant theological event for Barth was the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. Barth strongly opposed the German rationale for the war, and as the horrific reality of the conflict become clear, everything Barth thought he knew about the progress of history and culture was challenged. He particularly was shocked to learn that many of his former teachers had signed a declaration of support for the German war policy. This action prompted him to question everything they had taught him. As Barth put it later, “An entire world of theological exegesis, dogmatics, and preaching, which up to that point I had accepted as basically credible, was thereby shaking to the foundations.”4 Barth found little recourse in his fellow socialists because many of them also were caught up in the fervor of the war. He began to feel isolated. The theological and political movements that had been the most central to his life no longer seemed viable for him, and he began to search for a new community and a fresh start in his theology.

During this period Barth developed a close friendship with neighboring pastor Eduard Thurneysen that would last the rest of his life. Through letters and conversations, they began to share their questions, discuss new ideas, and search for a fresh theological path. Thurneysen introduced Barth to the theology of Johann and Christoph Blumhardt. The Blumhardts’ emphasis on eschatology and the kingdom of God exposed Barth to ideas and patterns of thought quite different from those he had encountered in the university. They also drove Barth to a new and deeper engagement with Scripture. He realized that he had taken the Bible for granted rather than seeking to understand it on its own terms. Now he read the text with care, and he found it invigorating.

In the summer of 1916, Barth began an intensive study of Paul’s letter to the Romans. Instead of studying the historical context of the letter or examining critical or textual issues as he had been trained, Barth focused on Paul’s message about God. He soon began to fill notebooks with his insights, and particular themes began to emerge. God could not be identified with any creaturely reality because he is totally distinct from every created thing. He breaks into the world from above in Jesus Christ, the revelation of God who reveals the true history while exposing the false one. The resurrection of Christ from the dead calls everything into question—every ideology and political movement and even religion itself.

As he continued to discuss these ideas with Thurneysen and a growing circle of friends, Barth began to share his insights in lectures delivered to churches and gatherings of pastors. During this same period, he edited his notebooks into a manuscript for a book, The Epistle to the Romans. When the first copies appeared in December 1918, Barth’s hopes were modest. He thought his work might assist a few fellow pastors and thinkers who also were searching for a new way forward in postwar Europe. Barth was surprised when the book received a great deal of interest almost immediately. The boldness of its claims matched the times, and people began looking to this young pastor to see what else he had to say. As his reputation grew throughout 1919, Barth continued to lecture and develop his ideas. Near the end of that year, he delivered a powerful lecture, “The Christian in Society,” at a conference of socialists in Tambach, Germany.5 He proclaimed God as “Wholly Other” and drew a distinction between the kingdom of God and every creaturely ideal and human ideology. This lecture was widely discussed, and Barth acquired a new level of prominence. He later recalled, “I suddenly found a circle, and the prospect of further circles, of people to whose unrest my efforts promised answers which at once became new questions.”6

From this point on, Barth’s life began to change at a rapid pace. In light of responses he had received to his book as well as developments in his thinking, Barth began to revise his commentary on Romans to sharpen the argument. While these revisions were in progress, he received an invitation to serve as Honorary Professor of Reformed Theology at the University of Göttingen, a school shaped by the Lutheran tradition. Although the theological fit was tenuous, the position was the opportunity of a lifetime. Barth resigned from his pastorate in Safenwil and moved his family to Germany to begin his teaching career in 1921. This new position and the publication of the second edition of The Epistle to the Romans provided Barth with a new level of academic prominence and credibility. His work began to receive responses from major scholars, many of them highly critical. Barth suddenly discovered that he was both the central figure in an exciting theological movement and the target of constant critique from the most significant scholars in the discipline.

That same year Barth partnered with his friends Thurneysen and Friedrich Gogarten to start the theological journal Zwischen den Zeiten (Between the Times). It would serve as an outlet for the writings of Barth and the other thinkers associated with what was now being called the “dialectical theology” movement. Through his essays in the journal and public lectures, Barth worked hard to defend the movement and his own views. “These were, of course, difficult years,” he later recalled, “for I had not only to learn and teach continuously, but also, as the champion of a new trend in theology, I had to vindicate and protect myself in the form of lectures and public discussions of every kind.”7 He found his teaching particularly challenging since his lack of doctoral training left him unprepared to offer that level of instruction. Barth had to learn as he taught, and he often stayed up late into the night to prepare lectures he would deliver the following morning. He immersed himself in the theological tradition by teaching courses on the Reformed confessions and the thought of major figures like John Calvin and Friedrich Schleiermacher. He also conducted exegesis courses on several books of the Bible, and later he edited his lectures on 1 Corinthians and Philippians for publication. This historical and exegetical study proved helpful as Barth began teaching his first course on dogmatic theology in the spring of ...

Table of contents

• iCover
• iiHalf Title Page
• iiiTitle Page
• ivCopyright Page
• vDedication
• viiContents
• ixPreface
• 1CHAPTER 1 Introduction
• 13Part 1 Barth’s Theological Development
• 103Part 2 Barth’s Church Dogmatics
• 301Part 3 Barth’s Political Engagement
• 347Conclusion
• 366Credits
• 369Index
• 372Back Cover