Abstract
This article explores Karl Barth’s exegesis of the ‘sepultus est…’ from the Apostles’ Creed, as articulated in his 1935 Credo lectures. I argue that Barth accords the sepultus a degree of theological significance that is against the grain, not only of the majority of western interpretations of Jesus’s burial, but also of his own later interpretation of it within his Kirchliche Dogmatik. Specifically, this article argues that in his 1935 lectures, Barth exegetes the sepultus in terms of a divine self-surrender to the ‘pure pastness’ that is the ‘state and fate’ of all humanity. As a consequence, the sepultus can then be used as the pivot to a different, and more hopeful, future.
Highlights
It is well known that Karl Barth—arguably the most significant theologian of his generation—lived through, and developed his theology within, one of the most tumultuous periods of modern history
Adolf Hitler’s National Socialism, World War Two and the Holocaust of the Jews, and the knife-edge years of the early Cold War—all of these provided the contextual backdrop against which Barth taught and wrote his theology, and by which his theology was, in turn, informed
This he does, not because the fact of Jesus’ death needs no verification, nor because the burial exists as merely an inconsequential mid-point between two more consequential events, but that serves no theological point in and of itself
Summary
Adolf Hitler’s National Socialism, World War Two and the Holocaust of the Jews, and the knife-edge years of the early Cold War—all of these provided the contextual backdrop against which Barth taught and wrote his theology, and by which his theology was, in turn, informed. Jesus Christ to which the church must listen and obey, Barth’s theology often spoke to the times in which he lived, even if he did not always acknowledge that it spoke out of the times in which he lived As he put it so succinctly, ‘In the present and for the sake of the present, dogmatics [does] not enquire about the voices of the day, but about the voice of God for the day’.1.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
