Election and the Pattern of Exchange in Karl Barth's Doctrine of the Atonement

Abstract

AbstractBruce McCormack has described Barth's doctrine of the atonement as even more forensic than the traditional Protestant account due to the role played therein by his doctrine of election. The content of this election is fleshed out by the covenant of grace. This essay gives attention to the place of one aspect of that covenant of grace—the pattern of exchange—as it is found in Barth's account of the atonement, arguing that a mutually constitutive relation of unity-in-distinction obtains between the pattern of exchange and election in Barth's treatment of the atonement, with an asymmetrical priority given to election.