Barth - Protestant Theology In The 19Th Century

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Barth (who)

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Swiss born 1886-1968
Reformed
Studied under Harnack and Hermann in various schools in Germany
1909 was assistant pastor at Geneva
1911 took pastorship at Safenwil (switzerland)
it was through his preaching he started realizing he needed a Jesus to preach and his education didn't help.
When his profs signed the Manifesto of the Ninety-Three German Intellectuals to the Civilized World supporting the kaiser's war (WWI) he was aghast.
1922 second edition to romans commentary comes out.
teaches in Germany until he gets kicked out for his refusal to follow along with Hitler. he protested Hitler's treatment of the Jews and wrote the Barmen Declaration in 1934.
He was dissatisfied with liberal theology and sought to correct it's tragectory starting with God rather than humanity. (humanity knows nothing on its own, only by God's revelation can it know anything).
In this manner became founder Neo-Orthodoxy with his dialectic approach

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Barth (thesis)

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19th century liberal theology, fathered by Schleiermacher, can only be understood by understanding its context. Furthermore, while many tenents of it ought to be rejected, it remains a Christian endeavor to which Christians owe much.

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Barth (context in universe)

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Barth wants to show that while there is much to disagree with in 19th cent liberals and schleier especially, we should not forget nor dismiss outright. he pushes back against the haters. he wants to remind critics that Schleier in the community of faith. we can disagree but we should respect and thank, and importantly understand.

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Barth (Schleiermacher)

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1) According to B. S. was a Christian theologian like Calvin and Luther (this statement agains Emil Brunner).
a) He chose theology from his youth.
b) He preached regularly from the pulpit.
c) He contributed to academic theology by writing dogmatically, which proved theology is a science.
d) Saw the danger of theology become solely apologetic.

2) S. wanted to be a modern man and Christian theologian--S. believed he was responsible for the intellectual and moral cultural world at the end of the 18th C. He spoke in terms of philosophy and history and the natural sciences. Kingdom of God equal to the advance of civilization. Wanted to draw man into education and exerted life, which was religious and ultimately Christian. (S. had affinity with Mysticism

3) "Apologetics is an attempt to show by means of thought and speech that the determining principles of philosophy and of historical and natural research at some given point in time certainly do not preclude, even if they do not directly require, the tenets of theology, which are founded upon revelation and upon faith respectively." The combination of Christian theology with the concern for being a modern man led him to emphasize apologetics. He needed to approach theology from the standpoint of the day--Romanticism. "As an apologist he is not a Christian theologian but a moral philosopher and philosopher of religion." Modern culture stand above Christianity; the apologist in defending Christianity against modern culture believes this. S. tried to resist this by defending a knowledge of God in the vein of a priori.

2 motifs of S: Experience and History

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Barth (Schleiermacher and Reformers)

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Not in concert with the Reformers on Trinity, revelation, or redemption.

-Trinity: S. struggled to explain the Reformer's confession of the deity of Christ and the Holy Spirit. He didn't realize that to reject the former, the second must be rejected.

-Revelation: Reformers held to revelation of the Father in the Son through the Spirit. a)Revelation for S. is a merging of anthropomorphic center (in feeling) and Christologic center (in Christ as the ultimate man). Historical factors trump supernatural ones.

-Redemption: b) Christ is the revealer and redeemer because he affect the higher life--creating piety--the feeling of absolute dependance. c) Christ is the individualization of Christianity. No natural religion, only religion made concrete in a temporal way. All religion connects to God, but Christianity, b/c of Christ, is the highest religion.