Covering Up Luther: How Barth's Christology Challenged the Deus Absconditus that Haunts Modernity

by Rustin E. Brian

Overview

Karl Barth's Christology provides a key to out-narrating the Deus absconditus, which, as Rustin Brian contends, is in fact the god of modernity. Included in this is the rejection of the logical and philosophical systems that allow for the modern understanding of God as the Deus absconditus, namely, dialectics and nominalism. This rejection is illustrated, interestingly enough, in Barth's decision to literally cover up, with a rug, Martin Luther's works in his personal library. Surely this was more than a decorative touch. The reading of Barth's works that results from this starting point challenges much of contemporary Barth scholarship and urges readers to reconsider Barth. Through careful examination of a large body of Barth's writings, particularly in regard to the issues of the knowledge or knowability of God, as well as Christology, Brian argues that contemporary Barth scholarship should be done in careful conversation with the finest examples of both Protestant and, especially, Roman Catholic theology. Barth's paradoxical Christology thus becomes the foundation for a dogmatic ecumenicism. Barth's Christology, then, just might be able to open up possibilities for discussion and even convergence, within a church that is anything but one.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621895800
Publisher:	Cascade Books
Publication date:	03/13/2013
Series:	VERITAS , #9
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	214
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Rustin E. Brian is an ordained Pastor in the Church of the Nazarene, currently pastoring Renton Church of the Nazarene in Renton, WA, and Adjunct Professor of Theology at Northwest Nazarene University and Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of Covering Up Luther: How Barth's Christology Challenged the Deus Absconditus that Haunts Modernity (2013).
Rustin E. Brian is an ordained Pastor in the Church of the Nazarene, currently pastoring Renton Church of the Nazarene in Renton, WA, and Adjunct Professor of Theology at Northwest Nazarene University and Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of Covering Up Luther: How Barth's Christology Challenged the Deus Absconditus that Haunts Modernity (2013).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

1 Introduction 1

2 Modernity and Its Theological Presuppositions 8

Nominalism 14

The (Not So) Hidden Theology of Modernity 19

Luther and His Hidden God: The Deus Absconditus 27

Excursus: Roman Catholicism's Alternate Modernity 32

Conclusion 37

Excursus: Rediscovering Henning Schroër's Original Terminology: "Paradoxie" and Not "Dialektik" 40

3 The Natural Knowledge of God in Karl Barth's Theology 57

Introduction 58

Der Römerbrief (6th ed., 1928) 61

The Göttingen Dogmatics (1924-25) 69

Anselm: Fides Quaerens Intellectum (1931) 73

Church Dogmatics I.1 (1932) 82

"Nein! A Response to Emil Brunner" (1934) 88

The Knowledge of God and the Service of God-The Gifford Lectures (1937) 91

Church Dogmatics II.1 (1940) 96

A Shorter Commentary on Romans (1940-41) 102

Conclusion 103

4 Barth's "Mature" Christology: The Absurd Possibility of the Absurd 109

Introduction 110

Church Dogmatics IV.1 (1956) 114

Church Dogmatics IV.2 (1958) 128

Church Dogmatics IV.3.1 (1961) 141

Church Dogmatics IV.3.2 (1961) 147

Church Dogmatics IV.4 (Fragment): Baptism as the Foundation of the Christian Life (1969) 154

The Christian Life: Church Dogmatics IV.4 Lecture Fragments (1981) 158

Conclusion 160

5 Ethics, Ecclesiology, and Ecumenicism in the Work of Karl Barth 163

Introduction 163

Ethics 166

Ecclesiology 172

Illustration of the Reality of Ecclesial Unity: Israel and the Church 179

Conclusion: Karl Barth and Roman Catholicism-A Way Forward? 183

Bibliography 193

Index of Names 199