I finally finished this book, my first by Barth – it took me months to read this short (155 pages) series of lectures delivered to a group of dedicated students at Kurfürsten Schloss in Bonn in 1959. Despite the fact that each section is at most about five pages, Barth is deceptively easy to read and thus I spent a great deal of time poring over what had been transcribed in each lecture. He seemingly wastes no words, hardly repeats himself and is almost never recorded delivering anything but the highest level of discourse. Many do not write as clearly as Barth spoke extemporaneously.
In particular, the three chapters on the structure of faith (Faith as Trust, Faith as Knowledge, and Faith as Confession) are particularly useful. The contrast between faith as trust and as knowledge was and is still difficult for me to totally understand in the context of this discussion. If reading the chapter on trust, one might accuse Barth (as some have) of fideism, but then taken as a pill with the chapter on knowledge, the waters are muddied. Knowledge rightly understood, knowledge as wisdom or Sophia rather that Scientia, Barth argues, is the sort of Christian knowledge that is related to faith (and encompasses the entire existence of man). Finally the church’s job, in faith, is to confess its faith. It must proclaim, even in ‘unedifying language’ familiar to those ‘out there’. Christian faith does not happen in a ’snail’s shell’ or in a comfortable dualism. Confession is not a weak thing that happens weekly in a church service, but in our every involvement outside of life Barth calls the Christian to confess in love, in ways that ‘Mr. Everyman’ can understand. To paraphrase St. Francis, spread the Gospel, and use words only if necessary.
By far the most moving chapter is on the coming judgment of Christ. Judgment never seems to be a fun topic, but in this case Barth points us to Christ as the one who will create order and restore what has been destroyed. (The particular university was apparently in near ruins in the post-war landscape, perhaps making this a particularly poignant point for many students as well as Barth himself). At judgment all tears will be wiped away. It won’t be a question of our faith or lack of faith – but it will be the point where “it is finished” comes into full view. Christ has done his work on earth, which holds for all, Christian and non-Christian alike. An amazing lecture that truly challenges any sort of knee-jerk reaction against Christ the Judge.
This was for me a book to savor and delight in, and it is one that I shall revisit again and again throughout my life.
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July 6, 2009 at 7:53 am
Geoff
This book really helped me not only to understand Barth, but to give me a view towards seeing Academically informed classical theology as helpful to the formation of mature Christian persons in the church. One big deficit in the spiritual formation movement in the united states is that guys like Dallas Willard or Eugene Peterson will recommend books that do this from the Puritans, Calvin, Francis Schaeffer, or maybe Horatius Bonar’s book “Holiness” functions as a shining example, but though their books are extremely helpful in seeing what life in Christ looks like, giving us appropriate means to live thusly, they do not use the full tool box of theological concepts.
Barth saw theology as a second order discourse that existed to tease out the implications of the gospel as well as to inform preaching [therefore the church] of the gospel in its largest possible dimensions. In so doing he is quite helpful to young folk like me for learning to appreciate theology, making the theological task exciting for the church as means to understanding the gospel, and thereby pointing to the God of the gospel as worthy of our all.
Also, if you read this little gem, then read Introduction to Evangelical Theology, and Barth’s Commentary on Philippians all of his other books suddenly become much more accessible in terms of readability. That’s how it happened for me anyway.
Last note, if you haven’t read anything by Dallas Willard or Eugene Peterson they are worthwhile. Particularly Willard’s book “The Divine Conspiracy” simply because though he fails epically at some exegetical points he situates the disciplined approriation of personal character directly within the historical advent of God’s kingdom in the work of Jesus Christ, so he uses biblical theological resources in a way very few devotional writers have ever attempted.