Summary
The following review of Karl Barth’s work, Evangelical Theology: An Introduction, provides a summary and an appraisal of the book’s content. The author’s intent is to offer an abbreviated account of four decades of theological musings. Barth utilizes a lecture format covering seventeen chapters, the first five of which were presented in Chicago and Princeton in 1962. Organizationally, Barth begins by describing evangelical theology, and then he divides the remainder of his work into four parts: (1) the place of theology, (2) theological existence, (3) the threat to theology, and (4) theological work.
Barth’s opening lecture provides a framework for evangelical theology. For Barth, all philosophies and ideologies are forms of theologies that find reality in some phenomenon. However, evangelical theology is built on the New Testament and the Reformation to engage the “God of the Gospel.”[1] The transcendent God of evangelical theology reveals Himself not only as the Object, but also the Subject of the endeavor. Further, evangelical theology presupposes human existence, faith, and reason to relate humanity to God, follows God in his self-disclosure through history, and features God’s yes as He freely extends love with, by, and for humanity.
The locus of Barth’s Christocentric theology lands squarely on God Himself revealed in the Word of God, Jesus Christ. The prophets of the Old Testament and apostles of the New Testament are the primary witnesses who point to the authority of the Word, Jesus Christ. The secondary witnesses consist of God’s community on a quest for truth found in Jesus Christ that is proclaimed through preaching, teaching, and counseling. Theology wholly depends on God’s Word, God’s prophets and apostles, and God’s community, which are empowered by the Holy Spirit, the place where “the history of Immanuel…becomes God’s Word.”[2]
Evangelical Theology: An Introduction
For Barth, engaging the Word of God requires a theological existence that resides within four concentric circles. The outermost ring consists of wonder, the supernatural phenomena that signals the reality of grace wrapped up in the miracle of miracles, Jesus Christ. In the next ring, the wonderment of God transforms the theologian into a concerned man wholly dependent upon God in the world, community, and private life. In the third ring, the concerned theologian becomes responsibly committed as he intellectually pursues three initiatives: the unity of God that avoids reductionism, the priority of God that seeks God in Christ, and the sufficiency of God that embraces God’s yes. The innermost circle consists of the event of faith, the condition of theology that miraculously and perpetually encounters the theologian.
Three existential threats to theology logically follow the topic of theological existence. First, Barth identifies the threat of solitude, which is required to maintain a healthy detachment from philosophical influences, community inclusion, and people’s approval. Next, the absence of legitimate doubt that matures the theologian accompanied by the presence of illegitimate doubt caused by worldly influences, church crises, and private indiscretion or exclusivity also threaten a theologian’s existence. Finally, the theologian faces the threat of God’s temptation, the moment God speaks loudly through silence to purify theology. Fortunately, the inner hope in God’s grace empowers the theologian to endure the threats of solitude, doubt, and temptation.
Building upon the foundation of theology’s place, existence, and threats, Barth frames the theologian’s work. The work of prayer removes the theologian from sight, which allows him to see the earth and heaven, the Object and Subject, and the answers and questions. The work of study utilizes biblical exegesis that employs all resources, church history that exercises prudence, systematic theology that embraces the Word, and practical theology that serves the community. The work of service directly ministers to the community and indirectly to the world in a selfless display of service to the Word, Jesus Christ. Finally, just as the goal of theology’s place was Spirit, existence was faith, and threat was hope; the telos of work is love, a love that needs nothing, seeks others, and knows God.
Appraisal
Barth’s theological intellect continues to astound. Unlike Barth’s monumental Church Dogmatics, the brevity of his introduction in the twilight of his career reminds the reader of a sage offering advice to a student, rather than a theological treatise. The dialectical nature of his wisdom seems to grasp the student at the very moment it fades, just before the fog clears. Barth comfortably embraces the beauty of paradox such as God is “exalted precisely in his lowliness.”[3] Barth also comfortably stands at the edge of contradiction and, at times, lacks clarity. For example, for Barth, philosophy must never rule theology, instead theology’s content is always exegesis, but its form is through “experiences of whatever psychology, sociology, or linguistics may be most trustworthy.”[4] Accordingly, Daniel Deegan suggests that Barth provides a distinction between content and form, but the distinction is quite ambiguous.[5]
One of the strengths of Barth’s work is his emphasis on the Word of God, Jesus Christ. The Word of God precedes, controls, directs, regulates, and gives life to theology, whose duty is to “hear, understand, and speak of the consummation of God’s Word.”[6] However, for conservative evangelicalism Barth’s Christological emphasis comes at a cost. Barth elegantly affirms the importance of Scripture as the recorded words of the prophets and apostles who, as primary witnesses, provided a trustworthy testimony to the Word, Jesus Christ. However, Scripture is not the Word of God; Christ is the Word of God; Scripture points to the Word of God, Jesus Christ.
It is difficult to overestimate the benefit of Barth’s focus on God rather than man, which challenges the budding and seasoned theologian alike. A focus that, according to Robert Roth, “cannot go back to Aquinas or Schleiermacher, Harnack or Troeltsch,” but “must go forward driven by the gospel to a united witness which proclaims what God says to man and not what man says about God.”[7] A perspective that continues to be distinctly and utterly Barthian.
The greatest strength of Barth’s effort may be his masterful weaving of practical wisdom into life lessons to benefit the theologian. For example, Barth explicates the transcendent wonder of God that activates an interdependent concern for the world, which reminds the theologian of the risks of dry rationality, reason, and proofs. Barth also encourages the theologian not to fear the inevitable rejection from other people, the necessity of legitimate doubt, or even the judgment of God, all of which purify the theologian in the “fire of the divine love.”[8] Finally, Barth inspires the theologian to immerse himself in the work of theology, not to perform a checklist of duties but because prayer, study, and service are activities that the theologian cannot not do as he looks completely away from himself toward the rule of God. Engaging wonderment, overcoming fear, and self-effacing service are theological life lessons that provide the protective edifice around an enduring life of ministry empowered by the Spirit and built upon faith, hope, and love.
Consistent with the paradoxical nature of Barth’s entire theological life, he ends his career with an introductory beginning. Barth’s work is an accessible introduction, skillfully translated from the original German with no footnotes or indices, which allows students, pastors, theologians, or interested lay persons to engage a modest, little giant of theology. A little giant, who provides a warm, gracious, and affable work that is, according to I. John Hesselink, “the next thing to meeting Barth himself.”[9] Certainly, Barth’s work ought to be required reading for anyone interested in “the most thankful and happy science” of evangelical theology.[10]
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[1] Karl Barth, Evangelical Theology: An Introduction (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1963), 5.
[2] Barth, Evangelical Theology, 53.
[3] Barth, Evangelical Theology, 11.
[4] Ibid., 183.
[5] Daniel L. Deegan, “Evangelical Theology: An Introduction,” Theology Today 20, no. 4 (1964): 569.
[6] Barth, Evangelical Theology, 23.
[7] Robert Paul Roth, “Evangelical Theology: An Introduction,” Lutheran Quarterly 16, no. 2 (1964): 190.
[8] Barth, Evangelical Theology, 137.
[9] I. John Hesselink, “Evangelical Theology: An Introduction,” The Reformed Theological Review 25, no. 3 (1966): 106.
[10] Barth, Evangelical Theology, 12.
Bibliography
- Barth, Karl. Evangelical Theology: An Introduction. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1963.
- Deegan, Daniel L. “Evangelical Theology: An Introduction.” Theology Today 20, no. 4 (1964): 568–70.
- Hesselink, I. John. “Evangelical Theology: An Introduction.” The Reformed Theological Review 25, no. 3 (1966): 106–7.
- Roth, Robert P. “Evangelical Theology: An Introduction.” Lutheran Quarterly 16, no. 2 (1964): 189–90.
