Karl Barth's Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology: Its Genesis and Development 1909-1936

by Bruce L. McCormack

This book is a major intellectual biography of perhaps the most influential theologian of the twentieth century, Karl Barth. McCormack offers the first full-scale revision of the well-known theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar's seminal interpretation of Barth, which was first published in 1951. Drawing on a wealth of material, much of it unpublished during Barth's lifetime, as well as a thorough acquaintance with the best of recent German scholarship, McCormack demonstrates that the fundamental decision that would control the whole of Barth's development--the turn to a new, critically realistic form of theological objectivism--was already made during the years in which Barth was at work on his first commentary on Romans. He further argues that the most significant decisions--both material and methodological--were made in Barth's Gottingen Dogmatics of 1924/5, and not later in the 1931 book on Anselm, as has often been alleged. This unique and important work provides not simply a fresh interpretation of Barth's development, but a new paradigm for understanding the whole of Barth's theology.

Genres: Theology

499 pages, ebook

First published April 20, 1995

About the author

Bruce L. McCormack (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary; DrTheol hc, Friedrich Schiller University) is Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. A world-renowned Barth scholar, he is a frequent writer and lecturer on topics of Reformed theology.

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an intellectual biography. Part of this book’s thesis is the overturning of Hans urs von Balthalsar’s claim that Barth rejected liberalism in favor of “analogy.” McCormack argues that Barth’s use of the en/anhypostatic distinction played a far greater role in his theology than the analogia fides. More importantly, the anhypostatic distinction allowed Barth to use the concept of dialektik until the very end.

McCormack effortlessly weaves Barth's social situation and his theology together.

>>> Barth as Anti-Bourgeois<<<

Barth flirted with socialism simply because he saw the failure of liberal individualism. Barth was not simply anti-capitalist. He said that socialism and capitalism were created by the modern world under situations that Jesus could not have foreseen (88).
However, the Socialist theme had receded from Barth by the first half of 1914. At the same time we see a new theme in Barth: the judgment of the wrath of God. “That God judges evil tells us something about God himself; it is not simply abstracted from the divine being” (McCormack 94).

>>>Theology in a revolutionary age<<<

McCormack argues that the crises evoked by Germany’s loss in WWI didn’t fundamentally change Barth’s theology. Barth opposed the very bourgeois German liberalism that was destroyed. Further, Barth was in Switzerland, which was neutral. And Barth always maintained ambivalence towards culture. It wasn’t evil but wasn’t the Kingdom of God.

>>>Clearing the Ground: The Theology of Romans II<<<

Thesis: BM argues that the gains made in Romans II are found everywhere in CD (244). T₂: If God can’t be known by metaphysical speculation, then he must be known indirectly, by means of a medium. God is not transformed into this medium. The revelation is distinct from the medium (249).

>>>Enhypostatic/Anhypostatic<<<

In many ways this is the most important chapter in the book and the most important moment in Barth’s career: he discovered the en/anhypostatic doctrine.

Thesis 1: This doctrine allowed Barth to replace the time-eternity dialectic with the dialectic of veiling/unveiling of Jesus Christ. The Trinity as Self-Revelation and Differentiation: it is God alone and God in his entirety or it is no revelation (351). God is subject of revelation in the earthly form, but God does not become the earthly form (354). The language of Self-Revelation places 5th century Christology on a modern basis (359). The dialectic of veiling/unveiling has now been localized in the incarnation and not simply in the Cross.

Problems with von Balthalsar's Reading

(1) analogia fide is itself an inherently dialectical term (16). It is grounded in the veiling/unveiling in revelation.
(2) It confuses two different categories. The analogy of faith refers to the result of a divine act over which human beings have no control. On the other hand, “Method” is something humans do.
(3) Talk of analogy has to do with what God does; talk of dialectic emerges here in the context of what humans do in light of the fact that they have no capacity for bringing about the Self-speaking of God” (314, 315)
(4) Contra HuvB, Barth never gave up dialectics, even if he gave a larger voice to analogy. If HuvB is true, then one must explain why Barth still retained the most fundamental category of his theology: the dialectic of veiling/unveiling. However, if HuvB simply said that Barth gave up the time-eternity dialectic, that would be true. Except Barth gave that up long ago. That happened in 1924.

Critical Conclusion

The book is in a class by itself. McCormack has an unparalleled command of primary and secondary literature, both in English and German. Further, it's not so much that he rejects von Balthasar's thesis: he simply contextualizes it.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most important intellectual biography of Karl Barth available in the English language. It earned its author, Dr. Bruce McCormack, the Karl Barth prize. You can check out my video review of the book here:

http://www.matthewdowling.org/2014/02...

[André Sette · Rating 5 out of 5]

O que falar sobre um clássico? Inescapável. Perfeito.

[Wyatt Houtz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a survey of Barth's works that formed his ideas leading up to the Church Dogmatics. It explains Barth's departure of the liberalism of hermann in Romans II and Barth's use of Anselm in his 'restart' from the Christian Dogmatics to Church Dogmatics, and how Barth's studies of the Reformed Confessions brought him into the Reformed Tradition. Also Barth's relationship to friends and colleagues and how they parted ways. McCormack provides a definitive resource that explains how Barth came to the Church Dogmatics. Magisterial

[Roth "my apartment smells of rich mahogany" Reason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super Amazing, geeky brilliance. If you are "into" historical theology, just shell out the $75 and get your anti-Nazi, anti-liberal, but still modernist, pseudo-Reformed, "genetic-historical", utterly fascinating, penetrating look inside the mind of Karl Barth on.
And btw, I tried to read Barth himself and just fell asleep, I don't know like 8000 times in the first 100 pages of CD I.I., but that's just me.

[Jeffrey]

This is a must read if you hope to understand Barth and his contribution to theology.