Karl Barth
A Life in Conflict
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Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198852469
Number of Pages: 480
Published: 25/03/2021
Width: 16 cm
Height: 24 cm
From the beginning of his career, Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968) was often in conflict with the spirit of his times. While during the First World War German poets and philosophers became intoxicated by the experience of community and transcendence, Barth fought against all attempts to locate the divine in culture or individual sentiment. This freed him for a deep worldly engagement: he was known as "the red pastor," was the primary author of the founding document of the Confessing Church, the Barmen Theological Declaration, and after 1945 protested the rearmament of the Federal Republic of Germany. Christiane Tietz compellingly explores the interactions between Barth's personal and political biography and his theology. Numerous newly-available documents offer insight into the lesser-known sides of Barth such as his long-term three-way relationship with his wife Nelly and his colleague Charlotte von Kirschbaum. This is an evocative portrait of a theologian who described himself as "God's cheerful partisan," who was honored as a prophet and a genial spirit, was feared as a critic, and shaped the theology of an entire century as no other thinker.
1: "I Belong To Basel": 1886-1904
Guildmaster, Pastors and Scholars: Barth's Ancestors
A Strict Love for Truth and Christian Discipline: His Parents
"A Great Great Joy": Childhood and Youth
2: "This Obscure Desire toward a Better Understanding": 1904-1909
The Decision to Study Theology
Student in Bern
Wearing the Colors and Noncombative: In the Zofingia Association
"Very Diligent and Quite Capable": Student in Berlin
Once More in Bern and Then Tübingen
Finally in Marburg
His Work for Die Christliche Welt
3: "Stumbling Up the Steps to Calvin's Pulpit": 1909-1911
Vicar in Geneva
Quite Demanding: The First Confirmation Instruction
Theologian in the Congregation
"In Such a Dreadfully Pious Environment"
A Daughter from a Good Home: The Engagement to Nelly Hoffmann
Farewell to Geneva
4: "The Red Pastor": Safenwil, 1911-1921
"This System of Employment Must Fall": Workers and Socialists
A Theological Friendship: Eduard Thurneysen
"The WorldWithout Gods": The First World War
"An Open House": Family Life
5: "A Book for Those Who Were Also Concerned": The First Epistle to the Romans, 1919
Human Religion and the Divine Word
"Like a Bomb on the Playground of the Theologians"
"Without Windows to the Kingdom of Heaven": The Tambach Lecture
6: "To Always Work Somewhat Faster": Göttingen 1921-1925
From Swiss Pastor to German Professor
"Unavoidable Nonsense of the Academic Business"
"Almost Like a Buddy": Barth with His Students
"Lively Combat": Emanuel Hirsch and Other Colleagues
"Stranger from a Neutral Place": Karl Barth and the Germans
7: "Not a Stone Left Standing": The Second Version of the Epistle to the Romans, 1922
A Critical Turn
The new version of the Epistle to the Romans
Critics and Admirers
What is Dialectical Theology?
Dialectical Traveling Companions: Brunner, Bultmann, Gogarten
Fifteen Questions and Sixteen Answers: The Controversy with Harnack
8: "The Need for Thinking Further": Münster 1925-1930
A Call and a Momentous Encounter
Received with Joy, Departing in Discord
In the Tunnel of the Semester
Return to Bern?
"The Church, the Church, the Church": Encounters with Catholicism
Riding, House Music and Travel
9: A Troubled 'Ménage à Trois': Charlotte von Kirschbaum
A Long-Guarded Secret
"I Never Knew That There Could Be Something Like This"
"A Certain Double Life"
Three Under One Roof
10: "A Swissman in the Middle of Germany": Bonn 1930-1935
Working on Theology
The Humanity of God
First Conflicts with German Nationalists: the Case of Günther Dehn
Now's the Time for the Social Democrat Party: 1933
Warnings to the Church and a Letter to Hitler
1933 as a Year of Crisis in the Barth Household
The Theological Dimension of Barth's Relationship to Charlotte von Kirschbaum
Attacks on the Swissman
Against the "German greeting"
The Break with his Dialectical Travelling Companions
The Barmen Theological Declaration
Suspension, Ban on Public Speaking, Dismissal
11: "We Who Can Still Speak": Basel 1935-1945
Life Goes On: Professor in Basel
International Honors and Lack of Appreciation
Battle for the Confessing Church
Anti-Appeasement: The Call to the Czechs to Resist
The Political Responsibility of a Christian
Church Struggle and Refugee Aid
Ecumenical Silence at the Onset of the War
Family Intrigues and Grief
A Call for Military Resistance, and Swiss Censorship
A Friend of the Germans, Nonetheless
12: "In Political Respects a Dubious Will-o'-the-Wisp": Basel 1945-1962
War's End and the Declaration of Guilt
Back to Bonn and, Once Again, State and Church Issues
"God's Beloved Eastern Zone": Against Anti-Communism
A Pacifist after All? Protest against Rearmament and Nuclear Weapons
Yes to Ecumenism, but without the Catholics
The Master with the Crumpled Tie
The Discovery of Optimism in Prison
Courage, Tempo, Purity, Peace: Confession to Mozart
Children, Grandchildren, and the Rejection of His Desired Successor
13: "The White Whale": Church Dogmatics
"A Conceptual Helix": Barth's Monumental Work
The Threefold Form of the Word of God
God's Three Modes of Being
"God is" means "God loves"
Whom God Elects
What God Commands
Why God Wants the Creation
Nothingness and the Shadow Sides of Creation
The Threefold Office of Christ and the Three Forms of Sin
The Light Shines Where It Wishes
The Baptism of Water and of the Spirit
14: "All Things Considered, A Little Tired": The Final Years, Basel 1962-1968
"Fantastic": A Calvinist in the United States
"Rules for Older people in Relation to Younger"
"As If Deeply Veiled": Charlotte von Kirschbaum Must Move Out
"Separated Brothers": In Conversation with Rome
A Late Friendship with Carl Zuckmayer
The Uncompleted Mammoth Work
At the End of His Life Journey
Epilogue
Chronology
Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
This is a maginificent, engrossing lucid and comprehensive treatment of the most important theologian of the modern era. Tietz has given not only to Barth scholarship but also to the history of theology in the twentieth century a great gift. We are in her debt. She reminds us of Barth's abiding preoccupation with God, and specifically with Jesus Christ who is "the event God's grace, a new beginning between God and humanity that is grounded solely in God". She also
helps us undertsand something of the conflicts that this preoccupation encouraged. * Christopher R. J. Holmes, Pro Ecclesia * Tietz's book presents us with a golden opportunity to get up to speed on the current understanding of Barth, both the man and his theology * James J Cassidy, New Horizons in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church * Tietz's Barth biography is a book worthy of recommendation not only for professional Barth researchers, but for everyone (even non-theologians) interested in church history and in contemporary history. * Frank Jehle, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland, International Journal of Systematic Theology * Tietz's work fills a major scholarly lacuna and deserves wide readership among pastors, teachers, students, and lay believers. * J. Scott Jackson, The Living Church * ... Tietz's primary achievement here is surely to map the intellectual development of Barth and to locate that contextually within the political circumstances that surrounded him. * Kevin Hargaden, Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice, Studies in Christian Ethics * Tietz has written a readable and meticulously researched biography of Karl Barth (1886-1968). She integrates Barth's life and work, and a very ''human'' Karl Barth emerges. * D.K. McKim, CHOICE Connect, Vol. 59 No. 8 * Selected as a 2021 Book of the Year by Alan Billings, Church Times Tietz's book is outstanding: her chapter-length summary of Barth's monumental, multi-volume 'Church Dogmatics' (1932-67), theologically the cornerstone and pinnacle of his achievement, is among the best short treatments of it I have read. * Stephen J. Plant, Times Literary Supplement * Tietz provides a sound and useful orientation to Barth's life and work. * Michael Banner, The Tablet * Remarkable ... meticulously researched and thoroughly referenced... [it] will become a standard text for all engaging with Barth's theology for generations to come. * Natalie Watson, Church Times * Tietz uses an impressive array of primary sources such as letters to his friend Eduard Thurneysen to chart Barth's life. * Paul Richardson, Church of England Newspaper * Very readable and accessible... Tietz's biography is a good entry into [Barth's] life and thought. * Richard A. Kauffman, Christian Century * Karl Barth's life story is worth telling. Or, better still, worth reading. A new biography, Karl Barth: A Life in Conflict by Christiane Tietz, tells it well... It is a compelling read. * Neil Richardson, Methodist Recorder * Christiane Tietz compellingly explores the interactions between Barths personal and political biography and his theology... an evocative portrait of a theologian * , Englewood Review of Books * [Tietz] is a reliable guide to her academic grandfather and the biography functions as a sound, accessible introduction to Barth's thought. * R. R. Reno, First Things * Tietz successfully places Barth's heological writings within key events of his life and the wider world, providing a broader context that illuminates his thought far more than the typical summaries. The portrait that emerges across the decades of Barth's career is one of an irascible thinker who seems to enjoy having controversial opinions. * Best Books of 2021, Todd Brewer, Mockingbird * [The book] reads smoothly but with the kind of clarity that is symptomatic of the best kind of academic work. In other words, the book is highly readable yet very much built on a reliable foundation... Tietz's work is diligent and insightful. I suspect her book will become the standard biography of Karl Barth for some time. For students of Barth's theology, it is indispensable. * Stephen D. Morrison * Christiane Tietz has done exemplary well in composing a thoroughly broad and yet deep investigation...We further believe this biography will be the standard biography on Barth for many years to come. * Bradley M. Penner, Reviews in Religion and Theology * Tietz's work will be another standard biographical treatment of Barth for years to come and is thus highly recommended. * Ximian Xu, Journal of Reformed Theology * This book is a stunning achievement. That a biography of a theologian is so engrossing speaks not only to the kind of life that Barth led, but also to the skill and patience of the biographer. * Declan Kelly, Rezension Kelly Journal of Ecclesiastical History *