Hello and welcome to this bonus episode of the Giants of the Faith podcast. This is the show where we look at Christians from the last 2,000 years that have made an impact for the Kingdom of God. I try to bring a mix and balance of folks from across the ages and from various locales. I have a big, and growing, list of Christians in my database but I'm always looking for more. If you have any suggestions for folks you'd like to see covered in an episode please send me an email at podcast@giantsofthefaith.com. My list is weak on Africans, Asians, and South and Central Americans so any suggestions from those areas are going to move toward the top of the list.
In today's episode we're looking at influential modern theologian Karl Barth. This is my third try at writing this episode because I've struggled to be able to present Barth in a way that both appreciates his impact on the 20th century church while dealing with the problems in his personal life. So, to avoid rubber-stamping Barth's status as a Giant of the Faith but to also cover such an influential figure, I'm bumping him to bonus episode status. This might limit the reach of this episode but it will at least assuage my conscience.
Karl Barth was born on May 10, 1886, in Basel, Switzerland. Barth came from a family with a strong Christian tradition. His father, Fritz, was a Swiss Reformed minister, and his mother, Anna Katharina, came from a family of theologians. Karl Barth's upbringing was deeply influenced by his parents' commitment to the Reformed faith. He had one younger sister, Katharina, but I could not find out anything about her beyond her name.
Despite his Christian upbringing, Barth was a wild child. He despised school and wandered the streets of Bern, his hometown. He got involved in a street gang and eventually became its leader. He was known to stir up trouble in the neighborhood and feuding with rival gangs.
He grew out of it, though, and in 1904 was set to follow in his father's footsteps toward the ministry. Barth studied theology at the University of Bern, where he was initially influenced by the liberal theology prevalent at the time. After Bern he attended the University of Berlin, where he encountered the works of theologians like Friedrich Schleiermacher and Søren Kierkegaard. These encounters played a crucial role in shaping Barth's theological development.
Before we move on with Barth's story, let's take a minute to look at what was meant by liberal theology. Liberal theology in the early 20th century was a theological movement that sought to reconcile Christian beliefs with modern intellectual and cultural developments. It emerged in response to the challenges posed by scientific discoveries, historical criticism of the Bible, and philosophical shifts such as rationalism and empiricism. Liberal theologians tended to prioritize reason and human experience over traditional dogma and supernaturalism. They sought to reinterpret Christian doctrines in light of modern knowledge and philosophical insights.
Additionally, liberal theologians embraced the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation, which applied scholarly analysis to the Bible in order to understand its historical context, literary genres, and authorial intent. This approach often led to questioning the literal truth of certain biblical accounts and doctrines. Along with this, liberal theologians tended to downplay or reinterpret traditional Christian doctrines such as the virgin birth, miracles, and the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Instead, they focused on the ethical and moral teachings of Jesus and the universal principles of love and justice.
Liberal theology placed a strong emphasis on ethics and social justice, viewing Jesus as a moral teacher and social reformer rather than a divine savior. This emphasis led to advocacy for social reforms, such as workers' rights, women's suffrage, and racial equality. The problem here, of course, is that the purpose and direction of the church shifted away from a focus on the gospel to an emphasis on worldly "good". And as the world's definition of good shifts farther and farther from a Biblical definition, so must the church's. That's what we see in today's mainline denominations that barely even claim the Christian mantle.
Liberal theologians often held an optimistic view of human progress and believed that society could achieve moral and spiritual improvement through education, social reform, and the application of Christian principles. Unfortunately, this was to be accomplished by making Christianity more palatable to modern culture by downplaying supernatural elements, emphasizing moral teachings, and presenting Christianity as compatible with scientific and intellectual inquiry.
After completing his studies, Barth served as a pastor in Geneva from 1909 to 1911 and then in the Swiss village of Safenwil from 1911 to 1921. During this time, he became increasingly disillusioned with the liberal theology of the day, which he saw as compromising the integrity of the Christian faith. This dissatisfaction with liberal theology would later become a central theme in his own theological writings.
In 1913 Barth met and married Nelly Hoffman in his Geneva church. The couple went on to have five children - four sons and one daughter. But the marriage was not a happy one and Barth's treatment of his wife was despicable. Put simply, Barth was a serial adulterer who treated his wife shamefully. He was a long-term unrepentant sinner.
We'll deal with Barth's infidelity and then return to the overall story of his life. In 1924 24 year-old Charlotte von Kirschbaum attended a Barth lecture. Kirschbaum had been introduced to Barth's writings by her pastor, a fellow named George Merz who also happened to be godfather to one of Barth's sons. Merz had encouraged Charlotte in her theological education and she was an avid follower or Barth's every move as reported in newspapers. And it was Merz that took Charlotte to meet Barth in person. Barth was impressed by Charlotte and invited her to come to his summer mountain retreat with other members of his inner circle.
In late 1925 Barth moved to Muenster to take a teaching appointment and his wife and family stayed behind in Göttingen until a home was found. Unfortunately, In February 1926 Charlotte visited Barth in Muenster and was his companion from then on. She began to proof and edit his writings and acted as his secretary.
In 1929 Barth and Kirschbaum spent the summer together in the Alps. When summer was over Barth announced to his family that Kirschbaum, his mistress, was moving in to the family home. You can imagine what this did to Barth's wife Nelly. At one point she put an ultimatum to Barth - either Charlotte would go or Nelly would sue for divorce. Barth considered this and then called a meeting between himself, Nelly, and Charlotte. Again he chose his mistress over his family and Charlotte stayed.
The relationship continued for many years until Barth's death and Kirschbaum lived in the Barth household until 1966, two years before Barth died. At that point she'd become ill and had to be moved to a nursing home where she lived until 1975.
In 2017 the Barth family released years of letters exchanged between Barth and Kirschbaum, exposing the depth of the affair. The long-term extra-marital affair and horrid treatment of his wife and family really stains Barth's reputation and makes it difficult, at least for me, to hold him in high regard.
So, jumping back to the main narrative. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 had a profound impact on Barth. Like many of his contemporaries, he initially supported the war effort, but he soon became disillusioned with the nationalist fervor and the complicity of the church in supporting the war in Germany. This experience deepened Barth's conviction that Christianity must offer a prophetic critique of culture and politics.
During his pastoral ministry in Safenwil, Barth became increasingly disillusioned with the liberal theology prevalent in the Protestant churches of his time. He saw liberal theology as compromising the integrity of the Christian faith by accommodating it to the spirit of the age. This dissatisfaction with liberal theology would later become a central theme in Barth's own theological writings. While serving as a pastor in Safenwil, Barth continued to study and engage with theological and philosophical ideas. He was influenced by thinkers such as Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, whose critiques of modern culture and philosophy resonated with his own concerns. This period of intellectual and spiritual development laid the groundwork for Barth's later theological innovations and contributions.
After the war, Barth began his academic career as a professor of theology in Göttingen, Germany. He later held teaching positions at the University of Münster and the University of Bonn. Throughout his career, Barth remained committed to the task of rethinking Christian theology in light of the challenges of the modern world.
In 1919, Barth published his groundbreaking commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, which marked a radical departure from the prevailing theological trends of his time. World War I was a period of profound social, political, and intellectual upheaval in Europe. The war had shattered many of the optimistic assumptions of 19th-century liberalism and had raised profound questions about the nature of human existence and the role of Christianity in the modern world.
Barth's commentary on Romans was a direct response to the liberal theology that dominated Protestant theology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He rejected the idea that Christianity could be reduced to a set of moral and ethical teachings or that it could be accommodated to the spirit of the age. Instead, Barth argued for a radical reorientation of Christian theology around the sovereignty of God and the absolute transcendence of divine revelation.
Barth's commentary on Romans introduced the theological method known as "dialectical theology," which emphasized the radical otherness of God and the paradoxical nature of divine revelation. According to Barth, God's revelation in Jesus Christ transcends human understanding and disrupts all human attempts to domesticate or control it. This approach challenged the anthropocentrism and rationalism of liberal theology and called for a renewed emphasis on the sovereignty and mystery of God. He also explored a wide range of theological themes, including sin and grace, law and gospel, faith and works, and the relationship between Jew and Gentile in the plan of salvation. He argued that the central message of Romans is the unconditional grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ, which calls forth a response of faith and obedience from believers.
Barth's commentary on Romans had a profound impact on the course of 20th-century theology, inspiring a generation of theologians to rethink their assumptions about the nature of God, revelation, and salvation. It sparked a theological revolution that came to be known as "neo-orthodoxy", though Barth himself rejected the term, which sought to reassert the transcendent and mysterious dimensions of the Christian faith in response to the challenges of modernity. It continues to be studied and debated by theologians and scholars around the world.
As Europe recovered from The Great War, Barth was an outspoken critic of Nazism in Germany and the German Christian movement, which sought to align Christianity with Nazi ideology. He opposed the Nazification of the German Protestant Church and was involved in the drafting of the Barmen Declaration in 1934, which affirmed the independence of the church from the state and rejected Nazi attempts to impose a "German Christian" theology.
Despite growing political pressure, Barth continued to teach and lecture in Germany during the interwar period. His lectures drew large crowds and influenced many students who would go on to become theologians themselves. However, Barth's refusal to align with Nazi ideology eventually led to his dismissal from his position at the University of Bonn in 1935. Barth was forced to leave Germany and took up a position as professor of theology at the University of Basel in Switzerland. This period of exile allowed him to continue his theological work in a more hospitable environment. He remained in Switzerland for the rest of his life, though he continued to engage with theological and political developments in Germany and beyond.
Following the devastation of World War II, Barth focused on the reconstruction of theology in the context of a world deeply affected by violence, suffering, and moral ambiguity. He sought to address the theological implications of the war and the challenges it posed to Christian faith. Barth's major work, "Church Dogmatics," was published in multiple volumes between 1932 and 1967. After World War II, Barth continued to work on this monumental project, refining and expanding his theological system. "Church Dogmatics" remains one of the most influential theological works of the 20th century, exploring themes such as the nature of God, revelation, and the relationship between God and humanity.
Barth remained actively engaged in ecumenical dialogue and efforts for Christian unity after World War II. He participated in various ecumenical conferences and meetings, advocating for greater cooperation and understanding among Christian denominations. Barth's theology played a significant role in shaping ecumenical discussions and agreements, particularly in the context of the World Council of Churches. He continued to offer sharp critiques of political ideologies and systems that he saw as incompatible with Christian faith. He spoke out against the Cold War arms race, nuclear proliferation, and the threat of totalitarianism. Barth's theological emphasis on the sovereignty of God and the priority of ethical responsibility led him to challenge both capitalist and communist ideologies.
In his later years, Barth continued to write essays, deliver lectures, and engage in theological debates. He addressed contemporary issues such as the relationship between theology and science, the role of the church in society, and the challenges of modernity. Barth's later writings reflect his ongoing commitment to theological inquiry and his concern for the relevance of Christian faith in a rapidly changing world.
Karl Barth's legacy continued to grow after his death in 1968. His writings have been widely studied and debated by theologians of all denominations, and his ideas have influenced generations of Christian thinkers. Barth's emphasis on the sovereignty of God, the centrality of Christ, and the importance of Scripture continues to shape theological discourse in the 21st century. Unfortunately, his life was also characterized by a great, unrepentant sin that must impact his legacy. He did great work for the kingdom but was ultimately an extremely flawed man.
Thanks very much for listening to this bonus episode. Until next time, God bless.
RESOURCES
The Gospel Coalition: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/theologians-karl-barth-adultery/
Rod Lampard: https://rodlampard.com/2018/09/06/three-criticisms-of-karl-barth/
The Torrey Gazette: https://torreygazette.com/blog/2017/6/27/all-the-barth-questions
Evangelical Orphan: https://evangelicalorphan.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/meet-karl-barth/
Athanasian Reformed: https://growrag.wordpress.com/2016/04/08/some-of-what-i-know-of-karl-barth-off-the-top-a-self-promoted-test-of-sorts/
Princeton Theological Seminary: https://barth.ptsem.edu/charlotte-von-kirschbaum-and-karl-barth/