Karl Barth and Anthropocentric Theology

Abstract

There is no doubt that the writings of Karl Barth give evidence of a critical attitude to the anthropocentric theology of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This critical attitude springs both from the failure of nineteenthcentury theology to make significant inroads into the twentieth century due to the traumatic experience of the first World War, and from Barth's own tlieology as it developed in the post-war years through to the early 1960s. Hence, to expound the relationship between Karl Barth and anthropocentric theology is a two-sided task. On the one hand, his attitude to nineteenthcentury theology may be assessed from his investigations of the theologians of that period. On the other hand, this critical attitude must of necessity be related to and contrasted with his own theological development. In this article, I shall be concerned to examine his attitude to anthropocentric theology in the light of his own developing theology.