Attending to the Sabbath: An Alternative Direction in Karl Barth's Theology of Prayer

Most accounts of Karl Barth's theology of prayer focus on the active dimensions of prayer, as prioritized in the formal sections on prayer in the Church Dogmatics. This leads to the suspicion that Barth has little time for the contemplative and reflective dimensions of prayer. This article will complement the existing approaches by broadening the scope of inquiry from the formal prayer‐sections into other, less obvious areas of the Dogmatics to uncover an alternative, contemplative, direction in Barth's theology of prayer. It will suggest, therefore, that attending to his rich but often‐neglected account of the Sabbath affords the opportunity to begin the work of reassessing Barth's relation to the contemplative tradition.     

In Defence of Karl Barth's Doctrine of the Trinity

Two common complaints against Barth's doctrine of the Trinity are here addressed. First it is argued that Barth's adoption of the term Seinsweise , or 'mode of being' to refer to the trinitarian persons is not in any way a departure from the traditional doctrine. Second, the suggestion that Barth's doctrine shifts over the course of the Dogmatics is examined and refuted.     

Karl Barth's Christology as a Resource for a Reformed Version of Kenoticism

Abstract:  This article starts by examining the 'shift' in thinking on kenosis from the sixteenth-century doctrine established by Lutheran orthodoxy to the nineteenth-century understanding developed by Gottfried Thomasius. Karl Barth's understanding of 'kenotic Christology' was largely controlled by the nineteenth-century definition and, as a result, he rejected it. However, Barth's later treatment of the incarnation in CD IV/I provides resources for taking up the language of kenosis in a positive way that would be thoroughly 'Reformed' in character. There are considerable theological gains to be made by such an approach.     

Mission Theology of the Church

This article on the mission theology of the church, a personal perspective by the vice‐moderator of CWME, draws on documentation produced by the commission and also responds to the Faith and Order document, The Nature and Mission of the Church. It is based on the trinitarian paradigm of mission referred to as missio Dei, which emphasizes the priority of God's sending activity in the world, by the Son and the Spirit, and the contingency of the church and its mission activities upon that. Therefore, it is concerned with the participation of the church in God's mission to and in the world, and from this perspective, has a particular interest with the actual, empirical church rather than the ideal church, recognizing that the church exists in many different forms in particular social, cultural, economic and political contexts. The article argues that the church is “missionary by its very nature”. Both theologically and empirically, it is impossible to separate the church from mission. Indeed mission is the very life of the church and the church is missionary by its very nature the Spirit of Christ breathed into the disciples at the same time as he sent them into the world. The mission theology of the church as it has developed in ecumenical discussion over the 20th and early 21st centuries is discussed in terms of the relationship of the church to the three persons of the Trinity: as foretaste of the kingdom of God; as the body of Christ; and as a movement of the Spirit. The article shows that being in mission is to cross the usual boundaries and bring new perspectives from outside to bear, and this is a never‐ending, enriching process.     

A Reappraisal of Karl Barth's Theological Development and his Dialogue with Catholicism

This article offers a distinct account of Barth's theological development, one that has an eye toward both the historical record and the contemporary debates about the systematic and ecumenical implications of his theology. It establishes that, from the second edition of Romans until the end of his career, Barth's theological development occurs as a series of internal adjustments in four stages along a single christological trajectory. Barth's dialogues with Catholic theologians play a pivotal role in this development, because these dialogues help him arrive at some of his most important insights. Taken together, these conclusions help us push beyond contemporary divisions between historical and systematic readings of Barth's theology and reframe the dialogue between Barth and Catholic theologians.     

The Twofold Life of the Word: Karl Barth's Critical Reception of the Extra Calvinisticum

Though the extra Calvinisticum has played an historically important role for Christology, the doctrine has been criticized not only by Lutherans and modern Christologies ‘from below’ but by some Reformed thinkers as well. This article examines the place of the extra in dogmatic thinking about the incarnation: specifically, Karl Barth's critical response to his own tradition. After examining the differences between Lutheran and Reformed construals of the relationship of the Logos asarkos to the Logos ensarkos I take up Barth's views on the extra, which over the course of his career moved from enthusiastic affirmation to a sharp critique. Finally, I suggest that Barth's mature Christology retains the best of both Protestant positions by correcting a critical inconsistency in Reformed thought. He does not reject the doctrine of the Logos asarkos, but he does suggest a way in which this is related to the life of the Logos ensarkos that marginalizes the former. Barth is right not to discard the extra, but also that it has been misused in how it is deployed in dogmatic theology.     

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.     

Mission and Theology: Teaching Missiology on the Basis of Together towards Life

Theological education and Christian mission have a history of mutual relations of only a century or so – from the time when missiology as a distinctive course was introduced into the curricula of certain theological schools and seminaries. For almost a generation, I have been involved both in global theological education, through the World Conference of Associations of Theological Institutions, and in global Christian mission, through the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, trying to analyze the viability and effectiveness of a missiological formation of future religious leaders.     

Theology as Conversational Event: Karl Barth, the Ending of "Dialogue" and the Beginning of "Conversation"

This essay deals with a commonly voiced concern with Barth's theology as expressed in the form that his theology illegitimately secures itself from critique, polices its narrow location assiduously and only lets in a few carefully vetted others when convinced that they can be useful. In contrast, through exploring John Milbank's distinction between dialogue and conversation it becomes possible to critique James Barr's and Clark Pinnock's understandings of “conversation” in a way that serves to hear Barth, and what it entails for theology to be “conversational”, significantly differently. Indeed, it will be maintained that “conversation” is an appropriate metaphor to apply to what Barth was doing with his theology.