Karl Barth: Post-Holocaust Theologian?

About the Book

Karl Barth's attitude toward the Jews, despite some admittedly unfortunate elements, still has much to commend it and the essays in this volume discuss this matter. The contributors examine numerous topics: the extent to which Barth compares favorably with recent post-Holocaust theologies, Barth’s position on the Jews during the Third Reich, his critique of the German-Christian Völkish church on ethical grounds. The discussion tackles Barth dialectical “Yes” to Israel’s christological “No”, it unpacks his ground-breaking exegesis of Rom. 9-11; as well as examines Barth’s rejection of the 1933 Aryan Law that formed the basis for excluding baptized Jews from Christian communities during the Third Reich. The essays also examine Barth’s later worries about Nostra Aetate, Vatican II’s landmark “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-christian Religions”. This is followed by an in-depth explanation how Barth’s theology differentiated the question of religious pluralism from church’s relationship with Judaism.
This inspiring volume concludes by taking up the neglected question of Barth’s place in modern European history.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments


Preface George Hunsinger (Princeton Theological Seminary, USA)

Chapter 1
Barth, Berkovits, Birkenau: On Whether it is Possible to Understand Karl Barth as a post-Holocaust Theologian, Mark R. Lindsay (MCD University of Divinity, Australia)

Chapter 2
Advent Sermon 1933, Karl Barth (Introduction and Translation by Michael Owen, Murdoch University, Australia)

Chapter 3
The Covenant of Grace Fulfilled in Christ as the Foundation of the Indissoluble Solidarity of the Church with Israel: Barth's Position on the Jews During the Hitler Era, Eberhard Busch (Karl Barth Institute Gottingen, Germany)

Chapter 4
The Jewish Samaritan: Karl Barth’s Ethical Critique of the Völkisch Church, Faye Bodley-Dangelo (Harvard Divinity School, USA)

Chapter 5
Saying "Yes" to Israel’s "No": Barth’s Dialectical Supersessionism and the Witness of Carnal Israel, Derek Alan Woodard-Lehman (University of Otago, New Zealand)

Chapter 6
Israel as the Pradigm of Divine Judgment: An Examination of a Theme in the Theology of Karl Barth, David E. Demson (Emmanuel College, University of Toronto, Canada)

Chapter 7
Karl Barth's Influence on Catholic Theology about Judaism, Philip J. Rosato (St. Joseph’s University, USA)

Chapter 9
Karl Barth, Israel, and Religious Pluralism, Paul Chung (Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, USA)

Chapter 10
Where Is Karl Barth in Modern European History?, Rudy Koshar (University of Wisconsin, USA)

Bibliography
Index

About the Author :
George Hunsinger is Princeton Theological Seminary's Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systematic Theology, USA.

Review :
It is clear that [this] volume offer[s] a great service to both the world of interfaith dialogue and to Barth scholarship… exceptionally rich and multifaceted resources of historical and theological insight, providing illuminating studies of events and texts of the past and provoking gestures towards the future. A rich resource for participants in the continuing debate about Barth’s legacy, as well as for those wanting to think theologically post-Holocaust. This collection is extremely important not only for an appropriate understanding of Karl Barth, but also for a crucial consciousness regarding all theological efforts in the awareness of enduring theological Anti-Judaism. Responsible ecclesiology and even all ecumenical perspectives have to be substantially aware of the indissoluble relationship between Church and Israel. Obviously there are different approaches but they all serve the same responsibility that has to be discovered anew—not only in Germany. The specter of anti-Semitism has haunted Karl Barth’s theology like a ghost. Denial and defense, or outright dismissal on those grounds, present all-too-easy—and too familiar—responses, equally inadequate. This book looks at Barth’s complicated relationship to Jews and Judaism unflinchingly in its face, and then sets out to rectify Barth in Barthian fashion. The result is debate and elucidation that the church has desperately needed for some time. This welcome volume draws together ‘treasures old and new‘—Contemporary path-breaking research into Karl Barth’s contribution to Christian theology after the Holocaust is joined here by the insights of earlier, now classic, essays on the theme. Together, these authors renew the call to think urgently and responsibly about what Barth himself considered the great ecumenical question: namely, the question of church and synagogue.” All Christian theology must give an account of its relation to Israel and Jewish people or it is not Christian theology. Karl Barth understood this. This wonderful collection of essays by leading Barth scholars takes up what Barth understood and in so doing asks us whether Karl Barth was a Post-Holocaust theologian. Their answer to this question is not first a matter for historical theology, but for what Christian theology must be in this moment and for our time. Indeed we are yet to understand fully how Christian theology has been changed by the Holocaust, and what a Post-Holocaust theology looks like. This text brings us a long way toward envisioning such a theology by exploring Karl Barth as such a theologian.