Karl Barth

Barth, Karl 

Born May 10, 1886, in Basel. Swiss Protestant theologian; one of the founders of so-called dialectical theology.

Barth’s first important work, The Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans (1918), was influenced by the ideas of S. Kierkegaard. It persistently emphasizes the incommensurability of the divine and the human. The objects of revelation and human knowledge are different, and that is why faith is that which dares to waver between “yes” and “no”—the courageous leap into emptiness. In the name of such an understanding of faith, Barth engaged in controversy with liberal Protestantism and Catholic religious rationalism. In addition, Barth energetically demanded social responsibility from the church; he regarded this as the criterion for distinguishing between the “true” church and the “false” church.

In his youth Barth participated in the Christian Socialist movement. In 1933 he emerged as an inspirer of Christian resistance to the Hitler regime. After the Munich Pact of 1938, Barth approved of armed struggle against fascism as a sacred cause. After World War II, Barth criticized cold war policies from the Utopian position of a “third way,” and he openly maintained relations with theological circles in both the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic.

WORKS

Gesammelte Vorträge, vols. 1–3. Munich, 1928–57.
Die kirchliche Dogmatik, vols. 1–9. Zollikon-Zürich, 1932–55.
Theologische Existent heute. Góttingen, 1955.

REFERENCES

Balthasar, H. V. von. K. Barth: Darstellung und Deutung seiner Theologie. Olten, 1951.
Hammer, J. K. Barth. Westminster, 1962.
Machovec, M. Marxismus und dialektische Theologie. Zurich, 1965.

S. S. AVERINTSEV