Barth's Ethics Research Articles

God's definite command? Some theological thoughts on a puzzling theme in Barth's ethics

AbstractOne of the most puzzling features of Barth's ethics is the insistence that God's divine command encounters us so definitely and concretely that it simply requires immediate and unquestioning obedience. This article offers an interpretation of these comments by reading them through the framework of Barth's description of the secularity, one-sidedness and spirituality of God's Word in Church Dogmatics I/1. Such a reading suggests that Barth's comments are not promoting a foolproof and immediate way of adjudicating ethical quandaries but orient us to the commanding Lord who goes before us.

Karl Barth in Beijing: Towards a Political Ethics of Collective Right in Neoliberal China

ABSTRACTThe objective of this article is to examine the political ethics of Karl Barth in the context of neoliberal China, with a focus on how he relates ethical beliefs to political engagement. Barth believes that human ethical action must be our free response to the Word of God in a covenantal relationship and thus be responsible to the rights of others. When addressing political issues, he resists all forms of hegemony, embraces a collective understanding of human rights, and urges their crucial importance for sustaining a humane political community. This article suggests that Barth's political ethics is helpful in reflecting on the lessons and prospects of collective right and resistance to Chinese neoliberalism.

Reflections on The Analogy of Grace by Gerald McKenny

One of the most significant studies of Barth's theological ethics to have appeared in recent years is The Analogy of Grace by Professor Gerald McKenny of the University of Notre Dame. In this article review, I seek to accomplish three things. First, I will offer a concise introduction to the form, content and purpose of this book. Second, I will attend to some of the volume's core claims in greater detail, exploring areas of potential exegetical and theological divergence. And finally, by way of conclusion, I will comment on the work against the backdrop of contemporary studies of Barth's theological ethics.

Response to Paul Nimmo

I am grateful to the Scottish Journal of Theology for offering me the opportunity to respond to Paul Nimmo's article review of the The Analogy of Grace, and I am especially grateful to Dr Nimmo for his lucid and accurate overview of the book, his generous comments, and his thoughtful and challenging criticisms. It is an honour to receive this careful and critical attention from the author of Being in Action, a study of Barth's ethics for which I have the highest regard.

Commanding Grace: Studies in Karl Barth's Ethics. Edited by Daniel L.Migliore. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2010. Pp. x + 255. Paper, $30.00.

Commanding Grace: Studies in Karl Barth's Ethics. Edited by Daniel L.Migliore. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2010. Pp. x + 255. Paper, $30.00.

Commanding Grace: Studies in Karl Barth's Ethics - Edited by Daniel L. Migliore; Ethics with Barth: God, Metaphysics and Morals - By Matthew Rose

Commanding Grace: Studies in Karl Barth's Ethics - Edited by Daniel L. Migliore; Ethics with Barth: God, Metaphysics and Morals - By Matthew Rose

Christian Ethics as Witness: Barth's Ethics for a World at Risk by DavidHaddorff, James Clarke, 2010 (ISBN 978‐0‐227‐17374‐9), x + 446 pp., pb £28

Christian Ethics as Witness: Barth's Ethics for a World at Risk by DavidHaddorff, James Clarke, 2010 (ISBN 978‐0‐227‐17374‐9), x + 446 pp., pb £28

Commanding Grace: Studies in Karl Barth's Ethics – Edited by Daniel L. Migliore

Commanding Grace: Studies in Karl Barth's Ethics – Edited by Daniel L. Migliore

Christian Ethics as Witness: Barth's Ethics for a World at Risk. By DavidHaddorff. Pp. xxii, 482, Cambridge, James Clarke, 2010, £28, $58, €40.99.Ethics with Barth: God, Metaphysics and Morals. By MatthewRose. Pp. viii, 226, Farnham, Surrey, Ashgate, 2010, £50, $89.95, €63.99.The Analogy of Grace. By GeraldMcKenny. Pp. xiv, 310, Oxford University Press, 2010, £68, $120, €82.99.

The Heythrop JournalVolume 53, Issue 4 p. 722-723 BOOK REVIEW Christian Ethics as Witness: Barth's Ethics for a World at Risk. By David Haddorff. Pp. xxii, 482, Cambridge, James Clarke, 2010, £28, $58, €40.99. Ethics with Barth: God, Metaphysics and Morals. By Matthew Rose. Pp. viii, 226, Farnham, Surrey, Ashgate, 2010, £50, $89.95, €63.99. The Analogy of Grace. By Gerald McKenny. Pp. xiv, 310, Oxford University Press, 2010, £68, $120, €82.99. Paul Brazier, Paul Brazier WimbledonSearch for more papers by this author Paul Brazier, Paul Brazier WimbledonSearch for more papers by this author First published: 06 June 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2265.2012.00748_27.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume53, Issue4July 2012Pages 722-723 RelatedInformation

TAKING EXCEPTION TO THE GRENZFALL'S RECEPTION: REVISITING KARL BARTH'S ETHICS OF WAR

AbstractThis article investigates Karl Barth's ethics of war and its reception by placing the discussion within the larger framework of the general ethics of Church Dogmatics II/2 and the special ethics of Church Dogmatics III/4. It gives careful attention to the infamously problematic “exceptional case” to illumine what sort of “exception,” if any, the provocative passages on war entail. The outlines of Barth's ethical framework and the Grenzfall, or borderline case, provide the background for the re‐evaluation of three common interpretations of his views on war.

Ethics with Barth: God, Metaphysics and Morals. By MATTHEW ROSE. * Christian Ethics as Witness: Barth's Ethics for a World at Risk. By DAVID HADDORFF.

‘The human soul is Christian by nature’ writes Matthew Rose (p. 1). However, ‘[h]uman beings simply cannot ask themselves the question to which God is the answer’ (p. 127). What seems like a paradox is consciously chosen as the theological foundation of Rose's monograph on Barth's ethics. This dissertation from the University of Chicago is one of several recent Roman Catholic discussions of Barth's ethics of creation. The Thomist thinker first describes Barth's fundamental dogmatic commitments and spells out their ethical implications in order to present Barth's ethics of creation in CD III/4. Rose repeatedly maintains that the revelation in Christ is the revelation of God, of God's law, of creation, and of humanity, and not the other way around. Clinging to this revelation, however, the analysis of creation can ‘ascend … from the cave to the divine light’ (p. 49). This would be impossible if creation were not ‘ordered to God’ (ibid.). Humanity now appears fundamentally relational, which constitutes an analogy to God's relational being. Rose can corroborate many of these claims with references to CD III/1–3. While his reading of Barth's ethics in II/2 is fairly selective, he does not aim at a complete vindication of Barth's thought. Nonetheless, he proposes combining the relational concept with Barth's notion of ‘the humanity of God’ as revealed in Christ, pointing to an ‘anthropological turn’ (p. 106) in Barth's theology that rests on metaphysical presuppositions. God's eternal aseity does not mean rivalry with creation. The created order should be highlighted precisely because it is grounded in God's sovereign, free decision for creation. Due to the eternal love of the omnipotent God, creation rests on solid ground in the face of temporal distortions.

Claiming Barth for Ethics: The Last Two Decades

AbstractSince 1990, there has been something of a reversal in scholarly opinion regarding Karl Barth's forays into Christian ethics. Against the previously held conclusion that Barth's account of divine action overwhelms the possibility of human agency and therefore any meaningful basis for ethics, more recent scholarship has tried to show that Barth did in fact take seriously the human being as moral agent. This article surveys the key publications from the past twenty years, in places bringing them into critical dialogue with one another, before assessing what can be learned about Barth's contribution to Christian ethics. There is discussion of Barth's relationship to casuistry and natural law, as well as the extent to which modern scholarship must rework Barth's theological ethics in order for it to publicly viable in the future.

Ethics in Crisis: Interpreting Barth's Ethics – By David Clough

Ethics in Crisis: Interpreting Barth's Ethics – By David Clough

Book Review: Ethics in Crisis: Interpreting Barth's Ethics

Book Review: <b>Ethics in Crisis:</b> Interpreting Barth's Ethics

The orders of creation in the theological ethics of Karl Barth

It is widely known that early on in his teaching career Karl Barth advanced a concept of the ‘orders of creation’, but that he retracted that concept in his later work in reaction to the tragic use that had been made of it by the National Socialist movement in Germany. However, two aspects of this movement remain relatively unexplored: first, the underlying material continuity between Barth's early ethics and his later ethics that this movement occludes; and second, the significant methodological shift in Barth's theology which this movement attests. This article explores both these aspects of Barth's theological development through his treatment of the ‘orders of creation’.

The postmodern realism of Barth's ethics

In light of current discussions in theological ethics, Karl Barth's ethics can be understood within the dialectical relationship of ‘postmodern’ and ‘realism’. Barth shifts theological ethics beyond anthropocentric Kantian or naturalist inspired ‘modern realism’ on the one hand, and a nihilist or deconstructionist inspired ‘postmodern antirealism’ on the other. Beginning with the centrality of the Word of God, Barth deconstructs modern (anthropocentric) moral realism, while at the same time reestablishing this same moral realism on theological grounds, which ironically moves it beyond the claims of postmodernism itself. What makes Barth's thought post-modern, then, is not his similarity to antirealist and deconstructionist thought, but his departure from its secular and anti-theological assumptions. Barth's ‘postmodern realism’, therefore, not only provides a way for contemporary theological ethics to dialectically be critical and hopeful, deconstructive and constructive, decentering and centering, but does so from the anti-anthropocentric and anti-secular standpoint of the Word of God.

Can a Gift Be Commanded? Theological Ethics without Theory by Way of Barth, Milbank and Yoder

In a recent series of essays, John Milbank has continued his impressive project of narrating a theological path beyond secular reason in both its modern and postmodern versions by attempting to develop an ‘ontology of the gift.’ In order to overcome the ontology of violence in which he claims that secular rationality is rooted, Milbank argues for the need to reclaim a specifically Christian understanding of ethics, and suggests that the best resources for doing so can be found in the logic of gift and gift-exchange. Among other things, he claims that the logic of gift involves a rejection of the notion of command, a notion whose theological significance has perhaps been expressed most forcefully by Karl Barth. It is therefore appropriate to examine Milbank's appeal to the ontology of the gift as an objection to Barth's divine command ethics. Given his construal of ethics in terms of command and obligation, it might be suggested that Barth's ethics is problematic to the extent that it retains the structure of the Kantian categorical imperative. At the same time, however, it is noteworthy that Barth develops his account of the command of God in the context of gift, and in particular the specifically theological context of the gracious gift of God in Jesus Christ. Such a combination of command and gift has led some to suggest that Barth's ethics is actually significantly anti-Kantian in structure.

Barth's Moral Theology: Human Action in Earth's Thought

1. Introduction 2. 'Life from the third dimension': Human action in Barth's early ethics 3. 'The great disruption': Word of God and moral consciousness in Barth's Munster ethics 4. 'The firmest grasp of the real': Barth on original sin 5. 'Assured and patient and cheerful expectation': Barth on Christian hope as the Church's task 6. Freedom in Limitation: Human freedom and false necessity in Barth 7. Eloquent and radiant: The prophetic office of Christ and the mission of the Church 8. 'The grammar of doing': Luther and Barth on human agency 9. Justification, analogy and action: Barth and Luther in Jungel's anthropology Further Reading Index of names

Barth's Ethics of Reconciliation

Barth's Ethics of Reconciliation

Barth's moral theology: human action in Barth's thought

1. Introduction 2. 'Life from the third dimension': Human action in Barth's early ethics 3. 'The great disruption': Word of God and moral consciousness in Barth's Munster ethics 4. 'The firmest grasp of the real': Barth on original sin 5. 'Assured and patient and cheerful expectation': Barth on Christian hope as the Church's task 6. Freedom in Limitation: Human freedom and false necessity in Barth 7. Eloquent and radiant: The prophetic office of Christ and the mission of the Church 8. 'The grammar of doing': Luther and Barth on human agency 9. Justification, analogy and action: Barth and Luther in Jungel's anthropology Further Reading Index of names