KARL BARTH'S EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY

Karl Barth's Evangelical Theology

Karl Barth's Evangelical Theology

This volume comprises the lectures delivered by Barth in Basel as his "swan song" the first five of which were given at the University of Chicago and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1962. In the foreword are Barth's impressions of his American visit and a challenge to initiate new theological directions and inquiries as appropriate for our time (Barth, 1963, p. xi). This book is not another Credo or a Dogmatics in Outline, but it is a fresh statement concerning the function of theology as a discipline, and the life of the theologian himself with its promises, threats, and demands.

It is of particular interest to compare what Barth says concerning the relationship of Biblical exegesis, the history of the Church, and dogmatic theology-especially as these are set forth in chapter 15, "Study"-with the corresponding treatment given to these by Schleiermacher in his Kurze Darstellung des theologischen Studiums. Schleiermacher recognizes that the claim of dogmatics to be a distinctive discipline is bound up with its acknowledgement of the normative ness of the person of Jesus Christ for the proper understanding of its subject-matter. However, this normativeness is the expression of Christian piety, or experience; and in the last analysis this is subordinate to a science of historical principles by which that which constitutes piety in general is determined. And this is a part of philosophical theology as the investigation of religious affection and communion rooted in human nature, precisely the sort of anthropological prius to theology that Barth refuses to admit (Barth, 1963, p. 99. See also Church Dogmatics 1/2, p. 813).

The very nature of the Christ logical norm means that the theologian himself stands under the judgment of God and that he is justified by grace alone. In other words, evangelical theology applies to itself the critique of justification by Christ and acknowledging its own inadequacy, lives by divine promise, by the constancy and reliability of the divine Word which makes itself known through the fallible speech of sinful man (Barth, 1963, p. 143, p. 152). The theologian is not to be set apart in "autarchic self sufficiency," for his discipline stands in the service of the Church and its proclamation to men of a particular time and place (Barth, 1963, pp. 75 f.). Theology is "evangelical" precisely as it is concerned with "Immanuel, God with us!" (Barth, 1963, p. 12). The proper emphasis on the majesty and sovereignty of God cannot be employed to obscure the reality of God's genuine condescension which occurs in grace. God is free to be with man and for man (p. 11). Theology points us to the faithfulness of God in covenant with man, to the irrevocable character of His decision to espouse the cause of man. Evangelical theology can at no point "by-pass" the reality of this decision, as if it could go behind it or specify the activity of God independently of it. The freedom of evangelical theology is precisely its freedom to pursue its ...