Karl Barth: Theologian of Christian Witness

Book reviewed:
Karl Barth: Theologian of Christian Witness by Joseph Mangina (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004) xiv + 208 pp. Reviewed by Timothy J. Gorringe Department of Theology University of Exeter The Queen's Drive Devon EX4 4QJ UK     

Karl Barth and the Purification of Divine Simplicity

Johnson investigates Karl Barth's critical appropriation of the doctrine of divine simplicity. While Barth is critical of traditional formulations of the doctrine, he understands himself to be refining the doctrine rather than rejecting it. Barth notes that Scripture attributes a diverse set of perfections to God in describing his salvific actions. These diverse perfections, however, have a fundamental unity: God does not contradict himself, but rather his perfections describe his unified, trustworthy agency. For this reason, we can know that in God's inmost being, God is not self‐contradictory but utterly unified or simple in his self‐fidelity. Johnson points out that a key element of Barth's doctrine of God is that it can never be the mere deduction of an abstract, transcendent entity; rather, it must begin with the transcendent God's relationship to creation, and therefore must begin with Jesus Christ, who reveals the true being of God. Johnson identifies three guidelines for speaking of Barth's doctrine: each one of God's perfections must be seen as perfections of his one divine being; God's one being does not exist above and behind his revealed perfections; and God's revealed perfections are essential to his divine nature. On this basis, Johnson explores what Barth has to say about the relationship between God's freedom and his self‐fidelity, including as this regards his freedom to live his one eternal life for us.     

Religious Diversity, Christian Doctrine and Karl Barth

Abstract:   The recognition of the heterogeneity of the goals of the world's religions has led to a greater alertness to the doctrinal questions raised by the presence of truth and rectitude which Christians might recognize in the other religions. In this article J.A. DiNoia's proposals for the recognition of subordinate and non-oppositional truths in the other religions, and his more recent defence of Barth's account of the religions in Church Dogmatics §17, are brought into dialogue with Karl Barth's account of truth extra muros ecclesiae in CD §69. It is argued that the latter raises a number of crucial doctrinal questions for DiNoia's own proposal for the recognition of subordinate and non-oppositional truth, and that it is a more important resource for contemporary discussions than is the controversial CD §17.     

The Place of Growth in the Theology of Karl Barth

It is often wondered whether Karl Barth’s doctrine of sanctification preserves space for a sufficient account of growth in the Christian life. Such concerns arise, at least in part, from Barth’s radical claim that the sanctification of all humanity is totally and effectively established in Jesus Christ, a claim that appears to exclude more familiar notions of cumulative regeneration. This essay seeks to complement other responses to this critique by delving into Barth’s most explicit discussion of growth in Church Dogmatics: §67.2 ‘The Growth of the Community’. A close reading of this subsection will demonstrate that Barth can happily employ the language of growth albeit interpreted in light of his understanding of the Christian life as an ongoing encounter with Jesus Christ.     

Karl Barth on the Ascension: An Appreciation and Critique

This exposition of Barth's doctrine of the ascension in Volume IV of the Church Dogmatics –'one of the major works of ascension theology'– begins by highlighting some central themes in representative patristic and modern discussions of the ascension and then provides a close and critical reading of the Dogmatics . Of special interest are questions regarding Barth's understanding of the specificity of the Christ-event, the structure of his doctrine of reconciliation, the relation of ontology and soteriology, and the function of the doctrine of the ascension in a thoroughly a posteriori theology.