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Karl Barth: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Karl Barth
Karl Barth was born on the 10th of May 1886 in Basel, Switzerland, into a family of conservative Reformed pastors, yet his life would become a radical rupture from the very tradition he inherited. His father, Johann Friedrich Barth, was a theology professor who expected his son to follow a positive line of Christianity, but Karl found himself increasingly disillusioned with the liberal theology taught by his university mentors. This internal conflict came to a head during his time as a pastor in the rural Swiss town of Safenwil, where he earned the nickname the Red Pastor for his vocal support of textile workers and his alignment with Social Democratic values. The turning point arrived in August 1914 when Barth learned that his venerated teachers, including Adolf von Harnack, had signed the Manifesto of the Ninety-Three German Intellectuals to the Civilized World, a document supporting Germany's war efforts. This betrayal of his intellectual heroes led Barth to conclude that he could no longer follow their understanding of the Bible and history, prompting him to seek a wholly other theological foundation. He began writing The Epistle to the Romans in the summer of 1916, a work that would eventually shatter the assumptions of liberal theology and redefine modern Christian thought.
The Dialectical Disruption
The publication of the second edition of The Epistle to the Romans in 1921 marked a decisive break from the liberal theology that had dominated the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Barth adopted a Dialectical approach, deliberately seeking to interrupt and destabilize the assumptions of his predecessors by a method of negation and affirmation. In a lecture delivered in Arau in 1916, he argued that God's righteousness is revealed like a trumpet blast from another world that interrupts one's obligation to nation, and also interrupts the nurturing of religious thoughts and feelings. A No to these assumptions knocks one to the floor, but a Yes to God's righteousness and glory sets one on one's feet again. This theological revolution was not a total repudiation of the historical-critical approach to the Scriptures, but rather a robust theological and Christ-centered response to the questions raised by other disciplines. The book's popularity led to its republication and reprinting in several languages, and it earned Barth an invitation to teach at the University of Göttingen. The work challenged and overthrew any attempt to ally God with human cultures, achievements, or possessions, establishing a new paradigm for Protestant theology that would influence generations of thinkers.
The Barmen Resistance
In 1934, as the Protestant Church attempted to come to terms with Nazi Germany, Barth was largely responsible for the writing of the Barmen Declaration, a document that rejected the influence of Nazism on German Christianity. The declaration argued 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, a bold move that signaled his refusal to compromise his faith for political expediency. He was elected a member of the leadership council of the Confessing Church, the Bruderrat, and became a central figure in the resistance against the Nazi regime. The cost of his defiance was high; he was forced to resign from his professorship at the University of Bonn in 1935 for refusing to swear an oath to Hitler. Alongside Kurt von Fritz, he was one of only two professors who refused to take the oath. Barth then returned to his native Switzerland, where he assumed a chair in systematic theology at the University of Basel. His commitment to truth over power was evident in his 1936 criticism of the philosopher Martin Heidegger for his support of the Nazis and his 1938 letter to a Czech colleague declaring that soldiers who fought against Nazi Germany were serving a Christian cause.
Karl Barth was born on the 10th of May 1886 in Basel, Switzerland. He was born into a family of conservative Reformed pastors.
What event caused Karl Barth to break from liberal theology?
Karl Barth broke from liberal theology after learning in August 1914 that his teachers had signed the Manifesto of the Ninety-Three German Intellectuals supporting Germany's war efforts. This betrayal led him to write The Epistle to the Romans in the summer of 1916 to establish a new theological foundation.
Why did Karl Barth resign from the University of Bonn in 1935?
Karl Barth resigned from the University of Bonn in 1935 because he refused to swear an oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler. He was one of only two professors who refused to take the oath alongside Kurt von Fritz.
What is the structure and scope of Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics?
Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics is a five-volume work containing over six million words and 9,000 pages. The volumes cover the Doctrine of the Word of God, the Doctrine of God, the Doctrine of Creation, the Doctrine of Reconciliation, and the Doctrine of Redemption.
Who was Charlotte von Kirschbaum and what was her relationship to Karl Barth?
Charlotte von Kirschbaum served as Karl Barth's theological academic colleague for more than three decades and lived in his family home for 37 years. She acted as his student, critic, researcher, adviser, collaborator, companion, assistant, spokesperson, and confidante while helping him write the Church Dogmatics.
When did Karl Barth die and what was his final message?
Karl Barth died on the 10th of December 1968 at his home in Basel, Switzerland. The evening before his death he told his friend Eduard Thurneysen that things are ruled entirely from heaven above.
Barth's theology found its most sustained and compelling expression in his five-volume magnum opus, the Church Dogmatics, which runs to over six million words and 9,000 pages, making it one of the longest works of systematic theology ever written. The work is divided into five volumes: the Doctrine of the Word of God, the Doctrine of God, the Doctrine of Creation, the Doctrine of Reconciliation, and the Doctrine of Redemption. Barth's planned fifth volume was never written, and the fourth volume's final part-volume was unfinished, yet the work remains a pinnacle of theological achievement. One of the most influential and controversial features of the Dogmatics was his doctrine of election, which rejected the idea that God chose each person to either be saved or damned based on purposes of the Divine will. Instead, Barth argued that God's absolute decree is God's gracious decision to be for humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. He retained the notion of double predestination but made Jesus himself the object of both divine election and reprobation simultaneously, embodying both God's election of humanity and God's rejection of human sin. This view of salvation, which is centrally Christological, argued that in Jesus Christ the reconciliation of all of mankind to God has essentially already taken place, challenging the conservative strains of Protestant Christianity that saw damnation as an absolute certainty for many.
The Love Triangle
Behind the public figure of the great theologian lay a private life of profound complexity involving Charlotte von Kirschbaum, who served as Barth's theological academic colleague for more than three decades. Von Kirschbaum lived in the family home for 37 years, playing a large role in the writing of his epic, the Church Dogmatics, and acting as his unique student, critic, researcher, adviser, collaborator, companion, assistant, spokesperson, and confidante. The letters between von Kirschbaum and Barth from 1925 to 1935, made public in 2017, revealed the deep, intense, and overwhelming love between these two human beings, creating a permanent conflict between his marriage and his affections for her. Barth described the situation as a reality that did not match, stating that he never could and still cannot deny either the reality of his marriage or the reality of his love. When Charlotte von Kirschbaum died in 1975, Barth's wife Nelly buried her in the family tomb, and Nelly died the following year. The publication of the letters caused a considerable crisis in English-speaking followers of Barth, who largely were not aware of the love triangle and the extent to which Barth and von Kirschbaum may not have been able to fully live according to their theological statements on marriage.
The Global Theologian
Barth's influence expanded well beyond the academic realm to mainstream culture, leading him to be featured on the cover of Time on the 20th of April 1962, an indication that his reach had penetrated American religious circles. He visited the United States in 1962, lecturing at Princeton Theological Seminary, the University of Chicago, Union Theological Seminary, and San Francisco Theological Seminary. He was invited to be a guest at the Second Vatican Council, though his health did not permit him to attend; however, he was able to visit the Vatican and be a guest of the pope in 1967, after which he wrote the small volume At the Threshold of the Apostles. Pope Pius XII is sometimes claimed to have called Barth the greatest theologian since Thomas Aquinas, though there is never chapter and verse for the quotation. Barth died on the 10th of December 1968, at his home in Basel, Switzerland. The evening before his death, he had encouraged his lifelong friend Eduard Thurneysen that he should not be downhearted, stating that 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. His legacy continues through the Center for Barth Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary, which houses the largest collection of his works in the world.