Karl Barth and the “Other” Task of Theology

KARL BARTH AND THE "OTHER" TASK OF THEOLOGY* I. Introduction 17.HE RECEPTION of Karl Barth's theology among my tudents at Virginia Seminary and perhaps on the arger North American scene has taken two principal forms.1 One group approves Barth for basing Christian theology on God's self-revelation alone. This group accepts Barth's claim that the only task of theology is testing the church's proclamation about God against God's own Word to the church. This group welcomes Barth's restriction of theology to one task: the clarification of faith in the church and for the church. This group affirms Barth's rejection of natural theology, a second way to speak about God based on a general revelation in nature, history, or moral conscience. This *William Porcher Dubose Theological Symposium Oct. 15-16, 1985; St. Luke's Seminary; Sewanee, Tennessee (I have decided to cite Barth from the Kirchliohe Dogmatik rather than from the English text for two reasons. To work with the original text is more responsible according to the canons of scholarship, and at least two differently paginated English translations are in common use.) 1 The Union Seminary Quarterly Review 28 (1972) published several contributions to a Karl Barth Colloquium held at Union Seminary, New York City, in 1970. The contributions give a flavor of American reception of Barth immediately after Barth's death in 1968. The contrast between the highly critical reading by the philosopher of religion, John Smith, and the more appreciative interpretation by Smith's respondent, Robert Jenson, symbolizes the two groups of Barth readers in North America. John C. Bennett, another contributor rejects Barth's excessive Christocentrism and disinterest in natural theology. Nevertheless, Bennett acknowledges his " gratitude" to Barth. Another sampling of American Barth reception is provided by Karl Barth and the Future of Theology, ed. David L. Dickerman (New Haven: Yale Divinity School Association, 1969). This volume collects contributions from another Barth colloquium. 540 BARTH AND THE " OTHER" TASK OF THEOLOGY 541 first group sides with Barth when he says thait the only true knowledge of God is God's own self-definition in Jesus Christ as witnessed to by Scripture. Since only one revelation of God exists, only one task of theology exists. A second group of Barth readers in the United States has perceived Barth in much the same way as the first, but for this very reason has rejected his theology. They find Barth rejecting any dialogue between theology and secular human self-understanding; they see Barth restricting theology to the task of clarifying faith. But rather than affirm these features, this second group dismisses Barth's theology as deeply flawed. They believe that God's Word must be related somehow to secular human self-understanding. This group believes, therefore, that theology has another task, not just clarifying faith, but engaging in dialogue with contemporary human self-understanding outside the church. This second group of Barth readers doesn't find in him any openness for such a dialogue. Members of this group may acknowledge that Barth performed a useful corrective service when he reemphasized God's sovereignty and freedom against the German Christian ideology of the 1930s. But for this group Barth's theological principles of exclusive focus on God's self-revelation and his reduction of theology's task to understanding faith are not enough. Theology must somehow relate God's truth to contemporary culture and secular human selfunderstanding . The great majority of contemporary American theologians and students of theology belongs to this second group. Much more familiar than Barth on the American scene, at least in the majority of our seminaries, university divinity schools and departments of religion, is Paul Tillich. Tillich did carry on a dialogue with secular human self-understanding with his method of theological correlation. Karl Rahner, John Macquarrie, David Tracy, and Langdon Gilkey have followed a similar path, examining the structures and dynamics of human existence as a way to make relevant and 542 DAVID A. SCOTT plausible major Christian doctrines. Wolfhart Pannenberg is also read in this country. He attempts to make Christian truth claims plausible by analyzing contemporary understanding of truth, history, time, and human nature. The...