KARL BARTH

1886-1968

 

 

 

ORIGINS

By his own admission he was made a theologian through the burden of having of having to preach the Word of God while fearful of preaching a merely human word.

 

 

 

 

INFLUENCES

He was schooled thoroughly in the tradition of theological liberalism (Schleiermacher, Hegel, Ritschl, Harnack, Troeltsch), and abandoned this tradition upon his disillusionment with it in light of its support of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

 

 

 

 

EARLY DEVELOPMENTS

-his conviction that God is God;

-the 1919 commentary on Romans:

we mustn’t confuse theology with philosophy or psychology;

”    faith with religion;

”    righteousness with morality;

”    the kingdom of God with culture.

-his appreciation of Kierkegaard.

-the 1921 edition of Romans.

-his appointment to Goettingen (1921), Muenster (1925), Bonn (1930).

 

 

 

 

 

LATER DEVELOPMENTS

-1927 Christian Dogmatics;

-1931 book on Anselm’s Fides Quaerens Intellectum;

-1932 Church Dogmatics (not Systematic Theology): it is scriptural, Christological, ecumenical.

 

-characteristic features of CD:

Barth’s consistent point of departure is the Word of God;

his thought always moves from reality to possibility;

his emphasis on reality gives rise to what has been called his “objectivism”;

related to his emphasis on reality and objectivism is his “actualism”;