Karl Barth#Barth.2C Liberals and Conservatives

Karl Barth was born on 10 May 1886, in Basel, Switzerland, to Johann Friedrich "Fritz" Barth (1852–1912) and Anna Katharina (Sartorius) Barth (1863–1938).{{cite web |url=https://postbarthian.com/2018/04/18/life-karl-barth-early-life-basel-geneva-part-1/ |title=The Life of Karl Barth: Early Life from Basel to Geneva 1886–1913 (Part 1) |last=Houtz |first=Wyatt |work=The PostBarthian |date=18 April 2018 |access-date=23 February 2019 }} Karl had two younger brothers, Peter Barth (1888–1940) and Heinrich Barth (1890–1965), and two sisters, Katharina and Gertrude. Fritz Barth was a theology professor and pastorGary J. Dorrien, The Barthian Revolt in Modern Theology: Theology Without Weapons, 2000: "Barthian "crisis theology" movement came into being. Karl Barth was the son of a conservative Reformed pastor and theological professor at the University of Berne, Fritz Barth..."{{page needed|date=April 2021}} and desired for Karl to follow his positive line of Christianity, which clashed with Karl's desire to receive a liberal Protestant education. Karl began his student career at the University of Bern, and then transferred to the University of Berlin to study under Adolf von Harnack, later transferring briefly to the University of Tübingen before finally settling in Marburg to study under Wilhelm Herrmann (1846–1922).

From 1911 to 1921, Barth served as a Reformed pastor in the village of Safenwil in the canton of Aargau. In 1913 he married Nelly Hoffmann, a violinist. They had a daughter and four sons, two of whom were Biblical scholars and theologians; Markus (6 October 1915 – 1 July 1994) and {{ill|Christoph Barth|de}} (29 September 1917 – 21 August 1986). Karl Barth went on to become a professor of theology in Göttingen (1921–1925), Münster (1925–1930) and Bonn (1930–1935) in Germany. While serving at Göttingen he met Charlotte von Kirschbaum, who became his long-time secretary, assistant and lover;{{cite book |last1=Tietz |first1=Christiane |title=Karl Barth: A Life in Conflict |date=25 March 2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-191885-8 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/39435 |language=en}} she lived in the family home for 37 years and played a large role in the writing of his epic, the Church Dogmatics.Church Dogmatics, ed. T. F. Torrance and G. W. Bromiley (1932–67; ET Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1956–75). He was deported from Germany in 1935 after he refused to sign (without modification) the Oath of Loyalty to Adolf Hitler, going back to Switzerland and becoming a professor in Basel (1935–1962).

Liberal theology (German: moderne Theologie) was a trend in nineteenth and early twentieth-century Protestant theology to reinterpret traditional beliefs in two ways. First, it adopted an historical-critical approach to the sources of Christianity. Second, it engaged with the questions that science, philosophy and other disciplines raised for the Christian faith.{{Cite book |last=Bowden |first=John |title=Christianity: the Complete Guide, entry 'Liberal theology' |publisher=Continuum |year=2005 |isbn=0-8264-5937-4 |location=London |pages=701 |language=English}} Barth's striking out on a different theological course from that of his Liberal university teachers Adolf von Harnack and Wilhelm Herrmann was due to several significant influences and events. While Pastor at Safenwil, Barth had an influential friendship with neighbouring pastor Eduard Thurneysen. Troubled that their theological educations had left them ill-equipped to preach God's message effectively, they together engaged in an intensive quest to find a "wholly other" theological foundation than that which Schleiermacher had proposed.{{Cite book |last=Barth |first=Karl |title=The Theology of Schleiermacher |publisher=William B Eerdmans Publishing Co and T & T Clark |year=1982 |isbn=0-567-09339-5 |location=Grand Rapids and Edinburgh |pages=264 (Concluding Unscientific Postscript on Schleiermacher) |language=English}}

In August 1914, Barth was dismayed to learn that his venerated teachers including Adolf von Harnack had signed the "Manifesto of the Ninety-Three German Intellectuals to the Civilized World".[http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Manifesto_of_the_Ninety-Three_German_Intellectuals Manifesto of the Ninety-Three German Intellectuals], 1914. As a result, Barth concluded he could not follow their understanding of the Bible and history any longer.{{cite web |url=https://postbarthian.com/2018/04/21/life-karl-barth-red-pastor-safenwil-part-2/ |title=The Life of Karl Barth: The Red Pastor of Safenwil 1909–1921 (Part 2)

|last=Houtz |first=Wyatt |work=The PostBarthian |date=21 April 2018 |access-date=23 February 2019 }} In 1915, Barth and Thurneysen visited Christoph Blumhardt, Leader of the Bad Boll Christian Community and Social Democratic politician. Their conversation made a deep impression on Barth. He later commented that "Blumhardt always begins with God's presence, power, and purpose,"{{Cite book |last=Blumhardt |first=Christoph |title=Action in Waiting |publisher=The Plough Publishing House |year=1998 |isbn=0-87486-954-4 |location=Farmington and Robertsbridge |pages='Afterword' by Karl Barth, 219 |language=English}} which indicates a likely influence in shaping his own theocentric starting-point. Barth also found in Blumhardt's pro-Socialist politics an inspiring encouragement for his own advocacy for the rights and unionization of Safenwil textile workers and alignment with Social Democratic values. These activities, and a public disagreement with a local factory owner, earned him local notoriety as the 'Red Pastor'.{{Cite book |last=Tietz |first=Christiane |title=Karl Barth: A Life in Conflict |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-19-885246-9 |location=Oxford |pages=62–66 |language=English}}

Barth's theological response was to adopt a Dialectical approach in which he deliberately sought to interrupt and destabilize the assumptions of Liberal theology by a method of negation and affirmation. In a lecture delivered in Arau in 1916, Barth argued that "God's righteousness is revealed like a trumpet blast from another world that interrupts one's obligation to nation, and also interrupts the nurturing of religious thoughts and feelings. A 'No' to these assumptions knocks one to the floor, but a 'Yes' to God's righteousness and glory sets one on one's feet again."{{Cite book |last=Barth |first=Karl |title=The Word of God and Theology |publisher=T&T Clark Continuum |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-567-08227-5 |location=London |pages=4–11 |language=English}} Although in one sense it is accurate to say that Barth's Dialectical approach sought deliberately to destabilize the assumptions of Liberal theology; in another sense it is important to acknowledge that Barth never totally repudiated the historical-critical approach to the Scriptures. In addition, he continued to engage with the questions that other disciplines raised for the Christian faith, typically responding with a robust theological and Christ-centered approach.

{{Main|The Epistle to the Romans (Barth)}}

Barth first began his commentary The Epistle to the Romans ({{langx|de|link=no|Der Römerbrief}}) in the summer of 1916 while he was still a pastor in Safenwil, with the first edition appearing in December 1918 (but with a publication date of 1919). On the strength of the first edition of the commentary, Barth was invited to teach at the University of Göttingen. Barth decided around October 1920 that he was dissatisfied with the first edition and heavily revised it the following eleven months, finishing the second edition around September 1921.Kenneth Oakes, Reading Karl Barth: A Companion to Karl Barth's Epistle to the Romans, Eugene: Cascade, 2011, p. 27. Particularly in the thoroughly re-written second edition of 1922, Barth argued that the God who is revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus challenges and overthrows any attempt to ally God with human cultures, achievements, or possessions. The book's popularity led to its republication and reprinting in several languages.

{{Main|Barmen Declaration}}

File:DBP 1984 1214 Barmer Theologische Erklärung.jpg

In 1934, as the Protestant Church attempted to come to terms with Nazi Germany, Barth was largely responsible for the writing of the Barmen Declaration ({{lang|de|Barmer Erklärung}}).{{cite web |url=https://postbarthian.com/2018/05/21/karl-barth-and-the-barmen-declaration-1934/ |title=Karl Barth and the Barmen Declaration (1934) |last=Houtz |first=Wyatt |work=The PostBarthian |date=4 April 2018 |access-date=23 February 2019 }} This declaration rejected the influence of Nazism on German Christianity by arguing that the Church's allegiance to the God of Jesus Christ should give it the impetus and resources to resist the influence of other lords, such as the German {{lang|de|Führer}}, Adolf Hitler.{{cite book|author=Michael Allen|title=Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics: An Introduction and Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cM5wdswTKWcC&pg=PA5|date=18 December 2012|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|isbn=978-0-567-48994-4|pages=5–}} Barth mailed this declaration to Hitler personally. This was one of the founding documents of the Confessing Church and Barth was elected a member of its leadership council, the Bruderrat.

He was forced to resign from his professorship at the University of Bonn in 1935 for refusing to swear an oath to Hitler. Barth then returned to his native Switzerland, where he assumed a chair in systematic theology at the University of Basel. In the course of his appointment, he was required to answer a routine question asked of all Swiss civil servants: whether he supported the national defence. His answer was, "Yes, especially on the northern border!"{{citation needed|date=May 2018}} The newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung carried his 1936 criticism of the philosopher Martin Heidegger for his support of the Nazis.Ian Ward (1992) Law, philosophy, and National Socialism. Bern: Peter Lang. p 117. {{ISBN|3-261-04536-1}}. In 1938 he wrote a letter to a Czech colleague Josef Hromádka in which he declared that soldiers who fought against Nazi Germany were serving a Christian cause.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

{{Main|Church Dogmatics}}

File:Karl Barth Church Dogmatics.jpg}}: The original 'white whale' edition of the Church Dogmatics from Barth's study that features a custom binding from the publisher[https://www.facebook.com/groups/464201847030947/permalink/3092239667560472 Original photo] by [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007346809390 Joshua Cook]]]

File:Barth--_Church_Dogmatics.png in English translation]]

Barth's theology found its most sustained and compelling expression in his five-volume magnum opus, the Church Dogmatics ({{lang|de|Kirchliche Dogmatik}}). Widely regarded as an important theological work, the Church Dogmatics represents the pinnacle of Barth's achievement as a theologian. Church Dogmatics runs to over six million words and 9,000 pages – one of the longest works of systematic theology ever written.[http://tandtclark.typepad.com/ttc/church_dogmatics/page/2/ The T & T Clark Blog: Church Dogmatics]. Tandtclark.typepad.com. Retrieved on 15 July 2012.Myers, Ben. (27 November 2005) [http://www.faith-theology.com/2005/11/church-dogmatics-in-week.html Faith and Theology: Church Dogmatics in a week]. Faith-theology.com. Retrieved on 15 July 2012.{{cite journal|doi=10.1177/004057367303000205 |year=1973 |last1=Grau |first1=H. G. |title=The Barth–Bultmann Correspondence |journal=Theology Today |volume=30 |issue=2 |page=138 |s2cid=170778170 |url=http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jul1973/v30-2-article4.htm |access-date=24 May 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821230358/http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/jul1973/v30-2-article4.htm |archive-date=21 August 2006 |url-access=subscription }} The Church Dogmatics is in five volumes: the Doctrine of the Word of God, the Doctrine of God, the Doctrine of Creation, the Doctrine of Reconciliation and the Doctrine of Redemption. Barth's planned fifth volume was never written and the fourth volume's final part-volume was unfinished.{{Cite web|url=https://postbarthian.com/2019/04/05/the-life-of-karl-barth-church-dogmatics-vol-iv-the-doctrine-of-reconciliation-1953-1967-part-7/|title=The Life of Karl Barth: Church Dogmatics Vol IV: The Doctrine of Reconciliation 1953–1967 (Part 7)|date=5 April 2019|website=The PostBarthian|language=en-US|access-date=5 April 2019}}{{cite web |url=https://postbarthian.com/2017/06/23/karl-barths-church-dogmatics-ended-single-stroke/ |title=Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics Ended At A Single Stroke

|last=Houtz |first=Wyatt |work=The PostBarthian |date=23 June 2017 |access-date=23 February 2019 }}Green, Garrett. "Introduction" to On Religion by Karl Barth, Trans. Garrett Green. (London: T&T Clark, 2006) p. 3

File:Karl Barth Letters 1961-1968.jpg

After the end of the Second World War, Barth became an important voice in support both of German penitence and of reconciliation with churches abroad. Together with Hans Iwand, he authored the {{ill|Darmstadt Declaration|de|Darmstädter Wort}} in 1947{{snd}}a more concrete statement of German guilt and responsibility for Nazi Germany and the Second World War than the 1945 Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt. In it, he made the point that the Church's willingness to side with anti-socialist and conservative forces had led to its susceptibility to Nazi ideology. In the context of the developing Cold War, that controversial statement was rejected by anti-Communists in the West who supported the Christian Democratic Union of Germany course of re-militarization, as well as by East German dissidents who believed that it did not sufficiently depict the dangers of Communism. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1950.{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=17 November 2012}} In the 1950s, Barth sympathized with the peace movement and opposed West German rearmament. Barth was exempted from a regulation that limited the tenure of a professorship at the University of Basel to the year they were 70 years of age, which he would have reached in 1956.{{Cite web |last=Kuhn |first=Thomas K. |date=2009 |title=Aus der Geschichte der Universität Basel |url=https://schwabe.ch/produkttypen/zeitschriften/basler-zeitschrift-fuer-geschichte-und-altertumskunde/ |access-date=20 April 2023 |website=Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde |publisher=Schwabe Verlag |pages=55 |language=de}}

Barth wrote a 1960 article for The Christian Century regarding the "East–West question" in which he denied any inclination toward Eastern communism and stated he did not wish to live under Communism or wish anyone to be forced to do so; he acknowledged a fundamental disagreement with most of those around him, writing: "I do not comprehend how either politics or Christianity require [sic] or even permit such a disinclination to lead to the conclusions which the West has drawn with increasing sharpness in the past 15 years. I regard anticommunism as a matter of principle an evil even greater than communism itself."Barth, Karl. "No Angels of Darkness and Light", The Christian Century, 20 January 1960, pp. 72 ff.

In 1962, Barth visited the United States and lectured at Princeton Theological Seminary, the University of Chicago, Union Theological Seminary and San Francisco Theological Seminary. He was invited to be a guest at the Second Vatican Council. At the time Barth's health did not permit him to attend. However, he was able to visit the Vatican and be a guest of the pope in 1967, after which he wrote the small volume {{lang|la|Ad Limina Apostolorum}} (At the Threshold of the Apostles).{{cite book|author=Eberhard Jüngel|title=Karl Barth, a Theological Legacy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tjAsAQAAMAAJ|year=1986|publisher=Westminster Press|isbn=978-0-664-24031-8|page=26}}

Barth was featured on the cover of the 20 April 1962 issue of Time magazine, an indication that his influence had reached out of academic and ecclesiastical circles and into mainstream American religious culture.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070429134707/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19620420,00.html TIME Magazine Cover: Karl Barth – 20 April 1962 – Religion – Christianity]. Retrieved on 15 July 2012. Pope Pius XII is sometimes claimed to have called Barth "the greatest theologian since Thomas Aquinas",{{cite web |url=https://postbarthian.com/2018/04/18/life-karl-barth-early-life-basel-geneva-part-1/ |title=The Life of Karl Barth: Early Life from Basel to Geneva 1886–1913 (Part 1) |last=Houtz |first=Wyatt |work=The PostBarthian |date=18 April 2018 |access-date=23 February 2019 }}{{citation|author=Timothy Gorringe|title=Karl Barth: Against Hegemony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6SlbBJM6go0C&pg=PA316|year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-875247-9|pages=316–}} though Fergus Kerr observes that "there is never chapter and verse for the quotation" and it is sometimes attributed to Pope Paul VI instead.{{cite journal |last=Kerr |first=Fergus |author-link=Fergus Kerr |date=December 1998 |title=Book Notes: Barthiana |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1741-2005.1998.tb01638.x |journal=New Blackfriars |volume=79 |issue=934 |pages=550–554 |doi=10.1111/j.1741-2005.1998.tb01638.x |access-date=24 September 2020|url-access=subscription }}

Barth died on 10 December 1968, at his home in Basel, Switzerland. The evening before his death, he had encouraged his lifelong friend Eduard Thurneysen that he should not be downhearted, "For things are ruled, not just in Moscow or in Washington or in Peking, but things are ruled – even here on earth—entirely from above, from heaven above."{{Cite web|url=http://barth.ptsem.edu/karl-barth/biography|title=Biography {{!}} Center for Barth Studies|website=barth.ptsem.edu|access-date=23 April 2016}}

Karl Barth's most significant theological work is his summa theology titled the Church Dogmatics, which contains Barth's doctrine of the word of God, doctrine of God, doctrine of reconciliation and doctrine of redemption. Barth is most well known for reorienting all theological discussion around Jesus.

One major objective of Barth is to recover the doctrine of the Trinity in theology from its putative loss in liberalism.Braatan, 80–81 His argument follows from the idea that God is the object of God's own self-knowledge, and revelation in the Bible means the self-unveiling to humanity of the God who cannot be discovered by humanity simply through its own intuition.Gorringe, 135-36. God's revelation comes to man 'vertically from above' ({{lang|de|Senkrecht von Oben}}).

One of the most influential and controversial features of Barth's Dogmatics was his doctrine of election (Church Dogmatics II/2). Barth's theology entails a rejection of the idea that God chose each person to either be saved or damned based on purposes of the Divine will, and it was impossible to know why God chose some and not others.Mangina, 76.

Barth's doctrine of election involves a firm rejection of the notion of an eternal, hidden decree.Chung, 385-86. In keeping with his Christo-centric methodology, Barth argues that to ascribe the salvation or damnation of humanity to an abstract absolute decree is to make some part of God more final and definitive than God's saving act in Jesus Christ. God's absolute decree, if one may speak of such a thing, is God's gracious decision to be for humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. Drawing from the earlier Reformed tradition, Barth retains the notion of double predestination but makes Jesus himself the object of both divine election and reprobation simultaneously; Jesus embodies both God's election of humanity and God's rejection of human sin.Webster (2000), 93–95. While some regard this revision of the doctrine of election as an improvement{{cite book|author=Douglas Atchison Campbell|title=The Quest For Paul's Gospel: A Suggested Strategy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7i53QgAACAAJ|year=2005|publisher=T & T Clark International|isbn=978-0-567-08332-6|page=42}} on the Augustinian-Calvinist doctrine of the predestination of individuals, critics, namely Emil Brunner,Brunner, Emil, The Christian Doctrine of God: Dogmatics: Volume 1, (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1950) have charged that Barth's view amounts to a soft universalism, thereby departing from Augustinian-Calvinism.

Barth's doctrine of objective atonement develops as he distances himself from Anselm of Canterbury's doctrine of the atonement.{{cite book|last1=Mikkelsen|first1=Hans Vium|title=Reconciled Humanity: Karl Barth in Dialogue|date=2010|publisher=Eerdmans|location=Grand Rapids, MI|isbn=978-0802863638|page=5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ASY7VESBi3wC&q=karl+barth+anselm+atonement&pg=PA5|access-date=19 October 2015}} In The Epistle to the Romans, Barth endorses Anselm's idea that God who is robbed of his honor must punish those who robbed him. In Church Dogmatics I/2, Barth advocates divine freedom in the incarnation with the support of Anselm's {{lang|la|Cur Deus Homo}}. Barth holds that Anselm's doctrine of the atonement preserves both God's freedom and the necessity of Christ's incarnation. The positive endorsement of Anselmian motives in {{lang|la|Cur Deus Homo}} continues in Church Dogmatics II/1. Barth maintains with Anselm that the sin of humanity cannot be removed by the merciful act of divine forgiveness alone. In Church Dogmatics IV/1, however, Barth's doctrine of the atonement diverges from that of Anselm.{{cite book|last1=Bloesch|first1=Donald G.|title=Jesus is Victor!: Karl Barth's Doctrine of Salvation|date=2001|publisher=Wipf and Stock|location=Eugene, OR|isbn=0687202256|pages=43–50|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IqlKAwAAQBAJ&q=karl+barth+anselm+atonement+diverge&pg=PA44|access-date=19 October 2015}} By over-christologizing the doctrine, Barth completes his formulation of objective atonement. He finalizes the necessity of God's mercy at the place where Anselm firmly establishes the dignity and freedom of the will of God.{{cite journal|last1=Hasel|first1=Frank M.|title=Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics on the Atonement: Some Translational Problems|journal=Andrews University Seminary Studies|date=Autumn 1991|volume=29|issue=3|pages=205–211|url=http://www.andrews.edu/library/car/cardigital/Periodicals/AUSS/1991-3/1991-3-02.pdf|access-date=19 October 2015}} In Barth's view, God's mercy is identified with God's righteousness in a distinctive way where God's mercy always takes the initiative. The change in Barth's reception of Anselm's doctrine of the atonement is, therefore, alleged to show that Barth's doctrine entails support for universalism.{{cite journal | last=Woo | first=B. Hoon | title= Karl Barth's Doctrine of the Atonement and Universalism | journal= Korea Reformed Journal | year=2014 | volume=32 | url=https://www.academia.edu/10186965 | pages=243–291}}

Barth argued that previous perspectives on sin and salvation, influenced by strict Calvinist thinking, sometimes misled Christians into thinking that predestination set up humanity such that the vast majority of human beings were foreseen to disobey and reject God, with damnation coming to them as a matter of fate.

Barth's view of salvation is centrally Christological, with his writings stating that in Jesus Christ the reconciliation of all of mankind to God has essentially already taken place and that through Christ man is already elect and justified.

Karl Barth denied that he was a Universalist: "I do not believe in universalism, but I do believe in Jesus Christ, reconciler of all".Busch, Eberhard. Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts. Trans. John Bowden. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2015. 394. Print. {{Cite web|url=https://postbarthian.com/2016/08/18/karl-barth-rejection-of-universalism/|title=Karl Barth's Rejection of Universalism|date=18 August 2016|website=The PostBarthian|language=en-US|access-date=5 April 2019}} However, Barth asserted that eternal salvation for everyone, even those that reject God, is a possibility that is not just an open question but should be hoped for by Christians as a matter of grace; specifically, he wrote, "Even though theological consistency might seem to lead our thoughts and utterances most clearly in this direction, we must not arrogate to ourselves that which can be given and received only as a free gift", just hoping for total reconciliation.

Barth, in the words of a later scholar, went a "significant step beyond traditional theology" in that he argued against more conservative strains of Protestant Christianity in which damnation is seen as an absolute certainty for many or most people. To Barth, Christ's grace is central.Richard Bauckham, [http://www.theologicalstudies.org.uk/article_universalism_bauckham.html "Universalism: a historical survey"], Themelios 4.2 (September 1978): 47–54.

{{Main|Karl Barth's views on Mary}}

Unlike many Protestant theologians, Barth wrote on the topic of Mariology (the theological study of Mary). Barth's views on the subject agreed with much Catholic dogma but he disagreed with the Catholic veneration of Mary. Aware of the common dogmatic tradition of the early Church, Barth fully accepted the dogma of Mary as the Mother of God, seeing a rejection of that title equivalent to rejecting the doctrine that Christ's human and divine natures are inseparable (contra the Nestorian heresy). Through Mary, Jesus belongs to the human race. Through Jesus, Mary is Mother of God.{{cite book|last1=Louth|first1=Andrew|title=Mary and the Mystery of the Incarnation: An Essay on the Mother of God in the Theology of Karl Barth|date=1977|publisher=Fairacres|location=Oxford|isbn=0728300737|pages=1–24}}

Barth's doctrine of scripture was criticised by reformed theologians such as Cornelius Van Til, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and others in the confessional reformed tradition. Chapter VIII of Van Til's, Christianity and Barthianism (1962), critiques Barth's view of revelation and das Wort Gottes ('the Word of God').

{{Main|Charlotte von Kirschbaum}}

Charlotte von Kirschbaum was Barth's theological academic colleague for more than three decades.{{cite book|author=Suzanne Selinger|title=Charlotte Von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth: A Study in Biography and the History of Theology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vIzEAaWbqT8C&pg=PA1|year=1998|publisher=Penn State Press|isbn=978-0-271-01864-5|pages=1–}}Stephen J. Plant, "When Karl met Lollo: the origins and consequences of Karl Barth's relationship with Charlotte von Kirschbaum." Scottish Journal of Theology 72.2 (2019): 127-145 [https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/293507/SJTArticle&Abstract-7.docx?sequence=1 online].Susanne Hennecke, "Biography and theology. On the connectedness of theological statements with life on the basis of the correspondence between Karl Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum (1925–1935)." International Journal of Philosophy and Theology 77.4–5 (2016): 324–336. George Hunsinger summarizes the influence of von Kirschbaum on Barth's work: "As his unique student, critic, researcher, adviser, collaborator, companion, assistant, spokesperson, and confidante, Charlotte von Kirschbaum was indispensable to him. He could not have been what he was, or have done what he did, without her."George Hunsinger's [http://libweb.ptsem.edu/collections/barth/reviews/CharlotteKirschbaum.aspx?menu=296&subText=468 review] of S. Seliger, Charlotte von Kirschbaum and Karl Barth: A Study in Biography and the History of Theology. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927234028/http://libweb.ptsem.edu/collections/barth/reviews/CharlotteKirschbaum.aspx?menu=296&subText=468 |date=27 September 2007 }}

File:Karl Barth Desk.jpg's crucifixion scene]] In 2017 Christiane Tietz examined intimate letters written by Barth, Charlotte von Kirschbaum, and Nelly Barth, which discuss the complicated relationship between all three individuals that occurred over the span of 40 years, released by Barth's children.{{cite web |url=https://postbarthian.com/2017/10/09/bright-bleak-constellation-karl-barth-nelly-barth-charlotte-von-kirschbaum/ |title=A Bright and Bleak Constellation: Karl Barth, Nelly Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum

|last=Houtz |first=Wyatt |work=The PostBarthian |date=9 October 2017 |access-date=23 February 2019 }} The letters between von Kirschbaum and Barth from 1925 to 1935{{Cite web|url=https://postbarthian.com/2017/10/09/bright-bleak-constellation-karl-barth-nelly-barth-charlotte-von-kirschbaum/|title=A Bright and Bleak Constellation: Karl Barth, Nelly Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum|date=9 October 2017|website=The PostBarthian|language=en-US|access-date=5 April 2019}} made public "the deep, intense, and overwhelming love between these two human beings," through the lengthy period in which von Kirschbaum lived in the same house as Barth and his wife Nelly.{{Cite journal|last=Tietz|first=Christiane|date=1 July 2017|title=Karl Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum|journal=Theology Today|language=en|volume=74|issue=2|pages=86–111|doi=10.1177/0040573617702547|s2cid=171520544|issn=0040-5736}} In them, Barth describes a permanent conflict between his marriage and his affections for von Kirschbaum: "The way I am, I never could and still cannot deny either the reality of my marriage or the reality of my love. It is true that I am married, that I am a father and a grandfather. It is also true that I love. And it is true that these two facts don't match. This is why we, after some hesitation at the beginning, decided not to solve the problem with a separation on one or the other side."Karl Barth, Vorwort, xxii n. 3, letter of 1947 cited by Christiane Tietz, "Karl Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum," Theology Today 2017 Vol. 74(2), 109. When Charlotte von Kirschbaum died in 1975, Barth's wife Nelly buried Charlotte in the family tomb. Nelly died the following year.

The publication of the letters in English caused a considerable crisis in English-speaking followers of Barth,{{cite web |last1=Grow |first1=Bobby |title=An Index to the Karl Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum Posts: And Some Closing Thoughts on the Whole Ordeal |url=https://growrag.wordpress.com/2017/10/12/an-index-to-the-karl-barth-and-charlotte-von-kirschbaum-posts-and-some-closing-thoughts-on-the-whole-ordeal/ |website=Athanasian Reformed |language=en |date=12 October 2017}} who largely were not aware of the love triangle and the extent to which Barth and von Kirschbaum may not have been able to fully live according to their theological statements on marriage. Von Kirschbaum's early financial dependence on Barth has been posed as a moral problem.{{cite journal |last1=Muers |first1=Rachel |title=The personal is the (academic) political: Why care about the love lives of theologians? |journal=Scottish Journal of Theology |date=August 2020 |volume=73 |issue=3 |pages=191–202 |doi=10.1017/S0036930620000319}}

Princeton Theological Seminary, where Barth lectured in 1962, houses the Center for Barth Studies, which is dedicated to supporting scholarship related to the life and theology of Karl Barth. The Barth Center was established in 1997 and sponsors seminars, conferences, and other events. It also holds the Karl Barth Research Collection, the largest in the world, which contains nearly all of Barth's works in English and German, several first editions of his works, and an original handwritten manuscript by Barth.{{cite web |url=http://www.ptsem.edu/library/barth/ |title=Princeton Theological Seminary Library |access-date=11 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150103125745/http://www.ptsem.edu/library/barth/ |archive-date=3 January 2015 }}. Princeton Seminary Library. Retrieved on 15 July 2012.Center for Barth Studies website – http://barth.ptsem.edu

• The Epistle to the Romans ({{lang|de|Der Römerbrief I}}, 1st ed., 1919)
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=dCEDzQhI4R4C The Epistle to the Romans] ([https://books.google.com/books?id=Ld4sHSewaJEC&pg=PP1 {{lang|de|Der Römerbrief. Zweite Fassung}}], 1922). E. C. Hoskyns, trans. London: Oxford University Press, 1933, 1968 {{ISBN|0-19-500294-6}}
• The Word of God and The Word of Man ({{lang|de|Das Wort Gottes und die Theologie}}, 1928). New York: Harper & Bros, 1957. {{ISBN|978-0-8446-1599-8}}; [https://books.google.com/books?id=nRQ_VXe47rUC&dq=word%20of%20god%20and%20theology%20barth%20marga&pg=PP1 The Word of God and Theology]. Amy Marga, trans. New York: T & T Clark, 2011.
• Preaching Through the Christian Year. H. Wells and J. McTavish, eds. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1978. {{ISBN|0-8028-1725-4}}
• God Here and Now. London: Routledge, 1964.
• Fides Quaerens Intellectum: Anselm's Proof of the Existence of God in the Context of His Theological Scheme (written in 1931). I. W. Robertson, trans. London: SCM, 1960; reprinted by Pickwick Publications (1985) {{ISBN|0-915138-75-1}}
• [https://archive.org/details/ChurchAndState-KarlBarth Church and State]. G.R. Howe, trans. London: SCM, 1939.
• [https://archive.org/details/TheChurchAndTheWar-KarlBarth The Church and the War]. A. H. Froendt, trans. New York: Macmillan, 1944.
• [https://archive.org/details/PrayerAccordingToTheCatechismsOfTheReformation-KarlBarth Prayer according to the Catechisms of the Reformation]. S.F. Terrien, trans. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1952 (Also published as: [http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/barth/prayerpreaching/prayerpreaching.c.htm Prayer and Preaching]. London: SCM, 1964).
• [https://archive.org/details/TheHumanityOfGod-KarlBarth The Humanity of God], J.N. Thomas and T. Wieser, trans. Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1960. {{ISBN|0-8042-0612-0}}
• Evangelical Theology: An Introduction. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1963.
• The Christian Life. Church Dogmatics IV/4: Lecture Fragments. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1981. {{ISBN|0-567-09320-4}}, {{ISBN|0-8028-3523-6}}
• The Word in this World: Two Sermons by Karl Barth. Edited by Kurt I. Johanson. Regent Publishing (Vancouver, BC, Canada): 2007
• "No Angels of Darkness and Light," The Christian Century, 20 January 1960, p. 72 (reprinted in [https://archive.org/stream/contemporarymora00ingirv#page/6/mode/2up Contemporary Moral Issues]. H. K. Girvetz, ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1963. pp. 6–8).
• The Göttingen Dogmatics: Instruction in the Christian Religion, vol. 1. G.W. Bromiley, trans. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991. {{ISBN|0-8028-2421-8}}
• Dogmatics in Outline (1947 lectures), Harper Perennial, 1959, {{ISBN|0-06-130056-X}}
• A Unique Time of God: Karl Barth's WWI Sermons, William Klempa, editor. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
• On Religion. Edited and translated by Garrett Green. London: T & T Clark, 2006.
• {{Citation

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| title = A Letter to Eberhard Bethge

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| volume = XV

| issue = 3/4

| pages = 201–202

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| year = 1969

| language = English

| url= https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/cjt/15-3_4_198.pdf

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• Volume I Part 1: Doctrine of the Word of God: Prolegomena to Church Dogmatics, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09013-2}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05059-9}} (German: 1932)
• Volume I Part 2: Doctrine of the Word of God, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09012-4}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05069-6}} (German: 1938)
• Volume II Part 1: The Doctrine of God: The Knowledge of God; The Reality of God, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09021-3}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05169-2}} (German: 1940)
• Volume II Part 2: The Doctrine of God: The Election of God; The Command of God, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09022-1}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05179-X}} (German: 1942)
• Volume III Part 1: The Doctrine of Creation: The Work of Creation, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09031-0}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05079-3}} (German: 1945)
• Volume III Part 2: The Doctrine of Creation: The Creature, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09032-9}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05089-0}} (German: 1948)
• Volume III Part 3: The Doctrine of Creation: The Creator and His Creature, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09033-7}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05099-8}} (German: 1950)
• Volume III Part 4: The Doctrine of Creation: The Command of God the Creator, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09034-5}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05109-9}} (German: 1951)
• Volume IV Part 1: The Doctrine of Reconciliation, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09041-8}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05129-3}} (German: 1953)
• Volume IV Part 2: Doctrine of Reconciliation: Jesus Christ the Servant As Lord, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09042-6}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05139-0}} (German: 1955)
• Volume IV Part 3, first half: Doctrine of Reconciliation: Jesus Christ the True Witness, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09043-4}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05189-7}} (German: 1959)
• Volume IV Part 3, second half: Doctrine of Reconciliation: Jesus Christ the True Witness, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09044-2}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05149-8}} (German: 1959)
• Volume IV Part 4 (unfinished): Doctrine of Reconciliation: The Foundation of the Christian Life (Baptism), hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09045-0}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05159-5}} (German: 1967)
• Volume V: Church Dogmatics: Contents and Indexes, hardcover: {{ISBN|0-567-09046-9}}, softcover: {{ISBN|0-567-05119-6}}
• Church Dogmatics, 14 volume set, softcover, {{ISBN|0-567-05809-3}}
• Church Dogmatics: A Selection, with intro. by H. Gollwitzer, 1961, Westminster John Knox Press 1994, {{ISBN|0-664-25550-7}}
• Church Dogmatics, dual language German and English, books with CD-ROM, {{ISBN|0-567-08374-8}}
• Church Dogmatics, dual language German and English, CD-ROM only, {{ISBN|0-567-08364-0}}

• Evangelical Theology, American lectures 1962 – given by Barth in Chicago, Illinois and Princeton, New Jersey, {{ISBN|978-0-9785738-0-5}} and {{ISBN|0-9785738-0-3}}

• "First they came ..."
• Frederick Herzog

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{cite magazine|url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873557,00.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070706012842/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,873557,00.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 6 July 2007 | title = Witness to an Ancient Truth |magazine=Time | date =20 April 1962 |access-date = 17 November 2012}}
• Bradshaw, Timothy. 1988. Trinity and Ontology: A Comparative Study of the Theologies of Karl Barth and Wolfhart Pannenberg. Rutherford House Books, reprint, Lewiston; Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press for Rutherford House, Edinburgh, 1992.
• {{cite book|last1=Braaten|first1=Carl E.|title=That All May Believe: A Theology of the Gospel and the Mission of the Church|date=2008|publisher=Eerdmans|location=Grand Rapids, MI|isbn=978-0802862396|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qzQ0pTDiLhQC&q=karl+barth+trinity+liberalism&pg=PA80|access-date=19 October 2015}}
• Bromiley, Geoffrey William. An Introduction to the Theology of Karl Barth. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1979.
• Buclin, Hadrien, Entre culture du consensus et critique sociale. Les intellectuels de gauche dans la Suisse de l'après-guerre, Thèse de doctorat, Université de Lausanne, 2015.
• Busch, Eberhard. Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1976.
• {{Citation | last = Busch | first = Eberhard | title = The Great Passion: An Introduction to Karl Barth's Theology | place = Grand Rapids, MI | publisher = William B Eerdmans | year = 2004 | author-mask = 3}}.
• Chung, Paul S. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090815082957/http://www.lutterworth.com/jamesclarke/jc/titles/karlbart.htm Karl Barth: God's Word in Action]. James Clarke & Co, Cambridge (2008), {{ISBN|978-0-227-17266-7}}.
• Chung, Sung Wook. Admiration and Challenge: Karl Barth's Theological Relationship with John Calvin. New York: Peter Lang, 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-820-45680-5}}.
• Chung, Sung Wook, ed. Karl Barth and Evangelical Theology: Convergences and Divergences. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.{{ISBN|978-0-801-03127-4}}.
• Clark, Gordon. Karl Barth's Theological Method. Trinity Foundation (1997, 2nd ed.), 1963. {{ISBN|0-940931-51-6}}.
• Fiddes, Paul. 'The status of women in the thought of Karl Barth', in Janet Martin Soskice, ed., After Eve [alternative title After Eve: women, theology and the Christian tradition], 1990, pp. 138–55. Marshall Pickering
• Fink, Heinrich. "Karl Barth und die Bewegung Freies Deutschland in der Schweiz." [Doctoral dissertation.] "Karl Barth und die Bewegung Freies Deutschland in der Schweiz : Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades doctor scientiae theologiae (Dr.sc.theol.), vorgelegt dem Senat des Wissenschaftlichen Rates der Humboldt-Universitaaet zu Berlin." Berlin, H. Fink [Selfpublisher], 1978.
• Galli, Mark (2000). [http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/2000/issue65/5.23.html "Neo-Orthodoxy: Karl Barth"]. Christianity Today.
• Gherardini, Brunero. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20160209182608/http://centreleonardboyle.com/karlbarth.html "A domanda risponde. In dialogo con Karl Barth sulle sue 'Domande a Roma' (A Question Answered. In Dialogue with Karl Barth on His 'Questions in Rome')"]}}. Frigento (Italy): Casa Mariana Editrice, 2011. {{ISBN|978-88-9056-111-5}}.
• {{cite book|last1=Gignilliat|first1=Mark S|title=Karl Barth and the Fifth Gospel: Barth's Theological Exegesis of Isaiah|date=2009|publisher=Ashgate|location=Farnham|isbn=978-0754658566|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h2cmhr_srHsC&q=friedrich+schleiermacher+karl+barth+reaction&pg=PA38|access-date=19 October 2015}}
• Gorringe, Timothy. Karl Barth: Against Hegemony. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Hunsinger, George. How to Read Karl Barth: The Shape of His Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
• Jae Jin Kim. {{lang|de|Die Universalitaet der Versoehnung im Gottesbund. Zur biblischen Begruendung der Bundestheologie in der kirchlichen Dogmatik Karl Barths}}, Lit Verlag, 1992.
• Mangina, Joseph L. Karl Barth: Theologian of Christian Witness. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2004.
• McCormack, Bruce. Karl Barth's Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology: Its Genesis and Development, 1909–1936. Oxford University Press, USA (27 March 1997), {{ISBN|978-0-19-826956-4}}
• McKenny, Gerald. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/019958267X "The Analogy of Grace: Karl Barth's Moral Theology."] Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. {{ISBN|0-19-958267-X}}.
• Oakes, Kenneth. Karl Barth on Theology and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
• Oakes, Kenneth. Reading Karl Barth: A Companion to Karl Barth's Epistle to the Romans. Eugene: Cascade, 2011.
• Webster, John. Barth. 2nd ed., London: Continuum, 2004.
• Webster, John, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Karl Barth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

{{Commons category}}

{{Wikiquote}}{{Portal|Reformed Christianity}}

• {{Helveticat}}
• {{Citation | title = Reclaiming the mind | date = Aug 2011 | contribution-url = http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2011/08/top-ten-theologians-9-karl-barth/ | contribution = Top Ten Theologians: Karl Barth | publisher = Parchment & Pen | access-date = 12 August 2011 | archive-date = 15 December 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181215122519/http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2011/08/top-ten-theologians-9-karl-barth/ | url-status = dead }}
• {{Citation|url=http://libweb.ptsem.edu/collections/barth |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20130125210223/https://ptsem.edu/library/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 January 2013 |title=The Center for Barth Studies |publisher=Princeton Theological Seminary }}
• {{Citation | url = http://webserver.pthu.nl/barth/index_Eng.htm | archive-url = https://archive.today/20120302182217/http://webserver.pthu.nl/barth/index_Eng.htm | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2 March 2012 | publisher = PTHU | place = NL | title = Barth Literature Search Project}}. Complete bibliography of literature by and about Karl Barth.
• {{Citation | url = http://www.tyndale.ca/seminary/mtsmodular/reading-rooms/theology/barth | title = Karl Barth Reading Room, with extensive links to on-line primary and secondary sources | publisher = Tyndale Seminary | place = CA | access-date = 22 October 2010 | archive-date = 28 August 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190828103313/https://www.tyndale.ca/seminary/mtsmodular/reading-rooms/theology/barth | url-status = dead }}
• {{cite journal| url = http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101620420,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050301084345/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,1101620420,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 1 March 2005 | date = 20 April 1962 | newspaper = Time | title = Karl Barth}}
• [http://karlbarth.unibas.ch/ Karl Barth-Archiv]
• Karl Barth Foundation, Basel (German: [https://bs.chregister.ch/cr-portal/auszug/auszug.xhtml?uid=CHE-108.072.558 Karl Barth-Stiftung]), directed by Bernhard Christ from 1984 to 2024
• [https://www.box.com/shared/e21fpes1x7 Primer on Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics]
• [http://www.morethancake.org/?s=karl+barth One Year With Karl Barth] A year-long project promoting discussion and application of Barth's Church Dogmatics.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130527153925/http://www.princetontheologicalreview.org/issues_web/36_text.html#article1 Article on Barth and Visual Art]
• [http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/131christians/theologians/barth.html Karl Barth: Courageous theologian] article from Christianity Today
• [http://www.kbarth.org/ Karl Barth] Hub to organizations and resources associated with Karl Barth
• {{PM20|FID=pe/001067}}

{{philosophy of religion}}

{{ethics}}

{{Sonning Prize laureates}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barth, Karl}}

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