Abstract
Although the theological exegesis of Karl Barth cannot be depicted as “naïve”, his cumulative style of interpretation presupposes that the Bible entails a “new world” that has a threefold character and that requires a “second naivety” as suggested by Paul Ricoeur (i.e. an interpretive position beyond criticism) as its hermeneutical point of departure: (i) an inner core of divine revelation in Jesus Christ; (ii) the prophetic and apostolic witness in the Bible that makes the divine core accessible for interpretation; (iii) the proclamation or preaching of the biblical witness that is rooted in this “second naivety”. Critical scholarship in general and historical-criticism in particular are not rejected outright, but theological exegesis must move beyond criticism. In the early part of his career Barth, when appointed as a lecturer in New Testament, Barth took serious note of critical biblical scholarship. However, the jury is still out whether critical biblical exegesis remained an important point of reference in Barth’s later publications and whether his reluctance to engage in hermeneutical and methodological reflection caused a lack of the self-criticism presupposed by a “second naivety”.
Highlights
Why bother with a study of Karl Barth’s interpretation of Scripture some fifty years after his death? More recently Jörg Lauster (2004:2) made a case that there is an ongoing crisis (“Dauerkrise”) in current Protestant doctrinal reflection about Scripture and that the presupposition that Scripture mustBosman STJ 2019, Vol 5, No 3, 245–263 be allowed to be its own interpreter (“scriptura sui ipsius interpres”) led to the conviction that the Bible was clear and self-explanatory.1Twelve years later Christiane Tietz (2016:283–302) still shares Lauster’s concerns and goes further by claiming that Gotthold Lessing’s diagnosis of “ein garstiger, breiter Graben” (“an ugly, broad ditch”) between human reason (“Vernunft”) and religious faith still holds true for the current theological interpretation of the Bible (Lessing 1777/1989)
Abstract the theological exegesis of Karl Barth cannot be depicted as “naïve”, his cumulative style of interpretation presupposes that the Bible entails a “new world” that has a threefold character and that requires a “second naivety” as suggested by Paul Ricoeur as its hermeneutical point of departure: (i) an inner core of divine revelation in Jesus Christ; (ii) the prophetic and apostolic witness in the Bible that makes the divine core accessible for interpretation; (iii) the proclamation or preaching of the biblical witness that is rooted in this “second naivety”
The jury is still out whether critical biblical exegesis remained an important point of reference in Barth’s later publications and whether his reluctance to engage in hermeneutical and methodological reflection caused a lack of the self-criticism presupposed by a “second naivety”
Summary
Why bother with a study of Karl Barth’s interpretation of Scripture some fifty years after his death? More recently Jörg Lauster (2004:2) made a case that there is an ongoing crisis (“Dauerkrise”) in current Protestant doctrinal reflection about Scripture and that the presupposition that Scripture must. Dirk Smit (2013b:181) refers to Barth’s theological argumentation as “a spiral” that starts each new argument from the beginning This discussion of Karl Barth’s interpretation of the Bible will be introduced by a few biographical details pertinent to the development of his biblical hermeneutics, a brief discussion of Ricoeur’s concept of a “second naivety” as a possible lens through which one can engage with Barth’s biblical interpretation, followed by Barth’s hermeneutical points of view undergirding his doctrine of the Word of God, as well as his understanding of time, history and reason. I shall argue that the concept of a “second naivety” may be considered as a hermeneutical key to come to grips with Barth’s interpretation of the Bible.
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