Karl Barth’s Christological Ecclesiology: A Historical Development

Ecclesiology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-337
Author(s):  
Jae Yang
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
The Church ◽  
Historical Institution

Abstract This paper traces the historical development of Karl Barth’s ecclesiology by analysing three representative works: The Epistle to the Romans, the Göttingen Dogmatics, and the Church Dogmatics. It argues that Barth’s theological turning point was a shift away from an early period Christology, which emphasised an eschatological time/eternity dialectic, culminating in the resurrection, towards a Christology that emphasised the anhypostatic union of Christ’s two natures, that culminated in the incarnation. Thus Barth gave an increasingly positive valuation of the church as an historical institution.

Human Dignity: Experience and History, Practical Reason and Faith

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hollenbach
Keyword(s):  
Human Dignity ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Reason And Faith ◽  
The Church

This chapter argues that human dignity can be grounded in historical experiences of the violation and attainment of dignity, and through arguments based on practical (as opposed to theoretical) reason about how to advance respect for dignity and reduce its violation. It also presents theological warrants for human dignity based on Christian faith, and argues that reflection by practical reason on human experience interacts with these Christian religious beliefs in ways that have led the Catholic community to become an important advocate of human dignity in recent decades. Continued interaction of practical reason, human experience, and faith can enable the Catholic Church to work with other communities on behalf of human dignity in addressing new challenges today, perhaps leading the church to further historical development of its understanding of human dignity and rights in new technological and social contexts.

‘The Men of Violence’, 1976–1981

2019 ◽  
pp. 88-116
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Scull
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Political Prisoner ◽  
Hunger Strike ◽  
Major Turning Point ◽  
Church Responses ◽  
Catholic Churches ◽  
The Church

This chapter is devoted to the prison protests in Long Kesh/Maze Prison. It evaluates Church responses to the evolving protest by republican paramilitary prisoners on their quest for ‘five demands’ for political prisoner status. The chapter will culminate with the 1980 and 1981 hunger strikes which saw the deaths of ten men in the prison, including Bobby Sands, and more than sixty deaths outside caused by heightened community tensions. At this point, the English and Irish Catholic Churches faced their greatest point of division over the issue of hunger striking as suicide; a schism often reported by the British media. Fr Denis Faul, a civil rights activist, effectively ended the 1981 hunger strike by convincing the families to medically intervene. The legacy of the strikes fractured the tenuous relationship between the Church and Irish Republicans, marking a major turning point in the conflict.

The Doctrine of Appropriation as an Interpretative Framework for Karl Barth's Pneumatology of the Church Dogmatics

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 278-290
Author(s):  
Adam McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Trinitarian Theology ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Trinity ◽  
Interpretative Framework

Although Karl Barth is widely recognised as the initiator of the renewal of trinitarian theology in the twentieth century, his theology of the Church Dogmatics has been strongly criticised for its inadequate account of the work of the Holy Spirit. This author argues that the putative weakness of Barth's pneumatology should be reconsidered in light of his doctrine of appropriation. Barth employs the doctrine of appropriation as a hermeneutical procedure, within his doctrine of the Trinity, for bringing to speech the persons of the Trinity in their inseparable distinctiveness. It is argued that the doctrine of appropriation provides a sound interpretative framework for his pneumatology of the Church Dogmatics.

Karl Barth

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul T. Nimmo
Keyword(s):  
Karl Barth ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Contemporary Work ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

This chapter explores the epistemology of theology that is described and deployed in the theology of Karl Barth. Drawing primarily on the second volume of the Church Dogmatics, the chapter first considers Barth’s understanding of the epistemology of theology with reference to the roles of Word and Spirit, the primary and secondary objectivity of God, and the place of analogy. It then turns to examine the impact of Barth’s position upon the way in which the discipline of theology engages in dialogue with other disciplines, observing Barth’s practice in respect of the conversations he conducts with general ethics and general anthropology. The chapter concludes by suggesting ways in which the work of Barth may have ongoing importance in respect of contemporary work in the epistemology of theology.

The Architecture of Karl Barths Church Dogmatics

1956 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-250
Author(s):  
John Godsey
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Human Element ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Church ◽  
Working Backwards

It may sound a bit presumptuous to speak of the architecture of a dogmatics which is not yet complete, but the size and scope of Professor Barth's Church Dogmatics to date would seem to justify our attempt to examine its outer structure in order to discover the basic dynamic principles involved in this Protestant ‘Summa’. In following this procedure, however, we should be aware that we are working backwards, for, unlike the many dogmatics in which the Christian Faith has been forced into a pre-established mould, Professor Barth has been willing to cast the mould in accordance with the demands of the Faith itself. This is not to deny in any way the obvious human element involving meticulous planning and unusually sensitive organisational skill, but is to state clearly that the Church Dogmatics is not a system conforming to the dictates of human reason, but is a bold yet humble attempt to write a systematic theology which conforms to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. As such, the architectural plans must necessarily result from obedient and faithful listening to the Word of God spoken to the Church, and all future designs must remain fluid and prepared for unexpected changes.

Israel

2019 ◽  
pp. 324-340
Author(s):  
Mark Lindsay
Keyword(s):  
Jewish People ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
The Church

Ever since 1967, when Friedrich-Wilhelm Marquardt first proclaimed Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics to be the discovery of Judaism for Christianity, Barth’s theology of Jews, Judaism, and Israel has been a matter of increasing interest and contention. Having moved well beyond the earlier presumption of Israel’s absence from Barth’s thinking, conversations have now turned to the much more interesting questions of why and how he afforded Israel and Judaism such prominence. With due regard to his episodic ambiguity in these matters, this chapter argues that Karl Barth came gradually to the realization that he was compelled to speak of Israel and the Jewish people, not reactively or reluctantly, but because neither Christianity nor the church are possible without or apart from them.

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