Beruf and Berufung in Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics: Toward a Subversive Klesiology

Abstract:   This article explores Karl Barth's understanding of calling in relation to vocation as found primarily within the Church Dogmatics . Its novel aspect resides in the methodological decision to read Barth's treatment of Berufung explicated in volume IV/3.2 in light of his critical distinction between Beruf and Berufung in volume III/4. Such a move is salutary considering the discursive nature of Barth's systematic thought progression within the Dogmatics , but it also offers much to explain the themes treated in the later volume, which do not fall specifically under the umbrella of vocation. Barth is not offering a doctrine of vocation ( Beruf ), but rather a doctrine of calling ( Berufung ), which brings implications residing in how one reads this section of the Dogmatics as well as in the possibility of constructing a theology of calling, an enterprise I call klesiology.