Karl Barth. Paul S. Chung
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Название: Karl Barth

Автор: Paul S. Chung

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Религия: прочее

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isbn: 9781498270311

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СКАЧАТЬ

      Karl Barth lived intensely. As a corollary, his theology can-not be adequately understood without reference to his life of social commitment. His thought-form is contextual and dynamic, sometimes repulsive. He was keen and open to modification, clarification, and correction in his theological trajectory. Barth, moreover, was not averse to self-critique and turnabout in his theological pilgrimage. Although there are many followers and movements of Barthianism, he remained hesitant and even averse to identifying himself with any form of “ism.” In Barth’s words we hear: “God is not identical with any ideology, and is not to be confused with such. Hence, conversion to Him is not to be confused with any human decision for rearmament or disarmament in orientation to any ideology” (CD IV/4:140). Understanding Barth this way implies an ongoing resistance to any real attempt at a systematization of his theology although, paradoxically, he is the systematic theologian of Church Dogmatics.

      In his commentary The Epistle to the Romans (8:24) Barth states: “If Christianity be not altogether thoroughgoing eschatology, there remains in it no relationship whatever with Christ” (R II:314). Barth’s dialectical theology is basically and definitely oriented toward eschatology. Needless to say, Barth’s dialectical-organic theology in the 1919 edition of Romans I, in fact, assumes an eschatological character and horizon. “Trust in God cannot be separated from eschatology.” “Solving the riddle of the world cannot be separated from eschatology” (R I:241, 246). The theology of Ursprung associated with the immediacy of God in Romans I and the theology of Krisis in Romans II can be understood first of all in light of God’s eschatology, God’s in-breaking reality into the world. Here, Barth cross-examines his theological development and exercises a self-criticism, especially in relation to his theological subject matter. When we read Barth from a political perspective, an expectation associated with eschatological longing constitutes his hurrying involvement in the political world, but at the same time we see him as a waiting theologian, remaining sober and down-to-earth, free from any political fanaticism.

      The Grounding Break in Karl Barth

      T. F. Torrance, by contrast, marks three developmental stages in Barth’s thought as he moved from the new starting point via dialectical thinking to dogmatic thinking. These stages are as follows: (a) In the new starting point of dialectical thinking there occurred a break with liberal theology during the year 1914, a break that reached its climax with the first edition of Romans in 1919; (b) the second principal stage began in the 1920s, when the thorough revision of his first Romans commentary came out, and the first volume of Barth’s projected Dogmatics exhibited the influence of Kierkegaard in a dialectical and realistic fashion; (c) the third stage came through Barth’s study of St. Anselm when Barth made the really decisive transition from Christian Dogmatics (Christliche Dogmatik im Entwurf [1927]) to the Church Dogmatics (Kirchliche Dogmatik [1932]).