Barth's "Analogia Relationis" and Heidegger's Ontological Difference

Abstract

Karl Barth's theology has been characterized as the theology of the triumph of divine grace. This characterization arises from Barth's concept of ultimate reality and his understanding of the real world. For Barth, the ontological reconciliation and fellowship between God and man eternally carried out within the trinitarian history is ultimate reality, and the reconciled world established by both the Christ event and salvation history is the real world.' If the significance and ground of creation are predestination and reconciliation, the meaning of creation is revealed in salvation history.2 In Barth's theology, therefore, election-God's fellowship with man-functions as the ground of creation and providence, and creation and covenant are the two sides of election. This implies that election unfolds itself as salvation history, and that creaturely history, including even natural history, is predestined to participate in the history of covenant.3 In Barth's theology, therefore, the history and fellowship within the trinitarian God unfolds itself as election, reconciliation, and salvation history. Von Balthasar is quite right when he identifies his concept of being with Barth's concept of the all-embracing decision of God (reconciliation), and within this framework of ultimate reality he finds a proper place for the well-known contrast between grace and nature.4 For von