Karl Barth’s Doctrine of the Word of God, Mozart, and aesthetics in four movements

Abstract

Karl Barth’s theology has a beautiful aesthetic quality. This chapter explains Barth’s theological reflection on beauty, including his admiration for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s music. It argues that in some movements that Barth’s novel Protestant doctrine of the Word of God provides a unique theological lens through which to approach beauty, including Mozart’s music. Barth’s theological-aesthetic musings, as illustrated by his appreciation for Mozart, bear import for the development of a theological aesthetic, including safeguards against certain abuses, namely, economic exploitation, on one hand, and religious and political propaganda, on the other hand. Barth’s emphasis on theological objectivity involving God’s loving, free, and beautiful Word finds a parallel in his interpretation of Mozart’s music. Mozart’s beautiful music celebrates human freedom within creaturely limits. Barth asserts that Mozart’s music plays recurrently and most clearly the objective truth that light penetrates the shadow and God’s yes envelops and surpasses the divine no.