The most important book to read about Karl Barth, March 23, 2009
By
Andrew D. Rowell
(Durham, NC) – See all my reviews
Eberhard Busch who became Karl Barth’s assistant in 1965 until the day he died in 1968 wrote this authoritative and fascinating biography of Barth’s rich life (1886-1968) in 1975. Busch also has a highly acclaimed survey of Barth’s theology: The Great Passion: An Introduction to Karl Barth’s Theology Every reader of Barth should read some work by Barth himself (one can begin anywhere but I would recommend the brief and readable God in Action: Theological Addresses [See my review at Book Review: Karl Barth’s God in Action–passionate, short, readable theology] or the early book that made him famous The Epistle to the Romans [See my reflections at Theology of Karl Barth course with Willie Jennings]) and then dive into this biography. There is no better way to understand Barth then to read Busch’s masterly crafted account of Barth’s life punctuated by Barth’s own candid and self-deprecating comments. Of course those already intrigued with Barth will most easily devour the biography but there is also something fascinating about learning how the person who wrote the most pages about God in the 20th century lived his own life. His magnum opus Church Dogmatics (31 vols) is about 8,000 pages. This 500-page biography flies by in comparison to Barth’s own deliberate style.
Barth had a rich life–here are just a few tidbits to whet your appetite. He felt compelled to speak out about issues that concerned him–against natural theology, Nazism, the demonizing communism, nuclear weaponry, and infant baptism. But he also depended on friendships and interaction with others to fuel and guide his passion. As a pastor from age 25 to 35, he struggled with preaching–“the depressing ups and downs” (89) and found some relief at being able to talk about it with his lifelong friend and fellow pastor Eduard Thurneysen (73-74). “We tried to learn our theological ABC all over again, beginning by reading and interpreting the writing of the Old and New Testaments, more thoughtfully than before. And lo and behold, they began to speak to us” (97). After Barth was rumored to have spoken up about a political issue “four of the six members of his church committee resigned” (106). Then Barth was denied a pay raise–he had been working at almost the same salary for 7 years (107). Finally, it was increased but “with 99 dissenting votes” (107). He was considered for two other churches but they did not offer him a position (122-123). Eventually, after Barth’s Epistle to the Romans was published, he was offered a professor position–but since he had no dissertation, it was an honorary one in Reformed Theology–to which he admitted he knew little about. “I can now admit that at that time I didn’t even have a copy of the Reformed confessions, and I certainly hadn’t read them” (129). Often he did not get along that well with other faculty at the schools where he taught. Other faculty were hired to “cancel out” his influence and his successors usually had theological views that were polar opposites to him. His completely rewrote his first attempts at the books Epistle to the Romans and Dogmatics because of his unhappiness with them. He had a female theological assistant and close companion Charlotte von Kirschbaum who was by his side for almost his entire career (from 1928 on) yet he remained married and his wife ended up caring for him in his old age (185-186, 472-473). Barth clashed vehemently and publicly (and usually reconciled personally later on) with all of his theological contemporaries. He loved the music of Mozart; was banned from speaking in public in Nazi Germany (259); helped and criticized the Confessing Church; praised and critiqued Roman Catholicism and John Calvin; regularly preached in a prison; saw Martin Luther King, Jr. and Billy Graham preach; corresponded with popes and even had the current pope Joseph Ratzinger sit in and help answer questions in one of his seminars (485); and enjoyed his four children, 15 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.
If you’ve heard about Karl Barth, read this book–you will then have a much better idea where he is coming from when you read his work.
I have also enjoyed biographies of other figures:
6 replies on “Book review of Karl Barth biography by Eberhard Busch”
Andy,
Have you come across a quotation from Barth as he was leaving Germany during the Nazi years?
I’ve heard that his final words of encouragement/instruction for the pastors who were remaining were something along the lines of “Exegesis. It’s all exegesis.” I’ve never had the time to track this down.
Brian, you had it exactly right.
I found two versions of the quote. Busch selects part of it for his narrative while Burnett quotes it in full.
Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth: His life from letters and autobiographical texts (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1976), 259).
Endnote 236, on p. 531 shows that Busch found this quotation in
Karl Barth, “Das Evangelium in der Gegenwart,” Theologisch Existenz heute (ThExh) 25 (1935), 16f.
“The day before [10 February 1935], he had said his formal farewell to his Bonn pupils at a Bible study group for students at Bad Godesberg. He gave an interpretation of Psalm 119.67 and James 4.6 and ended with the words: ‘We have been studying cheerfully and seriously. As far as I was concerned it could have continued that way, and I had already resigned myself to having my grave here by the Rhine! I had plans for the future with other colleagues who are either no longer here or have been away for a long time–but there has been a frost on our spring night! And now the end has come. So listen to my last piece of advice: exegesis, exegesis and yet more exegesis! Keep to the Word, to the scripture that has been given us.'”
A fuller version appears in
Richard E. Burnett, Karl Barth’s Theological Exegesis: The Hermeneutical Principles of the Romerbrief Period (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 30. in which he quotes from the same article:
Karl Barth, “Das Evangelium in der Gegenwart,” Theologisch Existenz heute 25 (1935), p. 17.
“Dear friends, who have listened to me, the main thing you have heard from me is dogmatics. Dogmatics is a high and steep art. I do not want to deny that, humanly as well, I strive after it with a certain love and desire. And I dare say that I have noticed that many of you have been excited about this subject matter as well. If this now for the moment has come to an end, accept this as a signal for you to temporarily begin anew your studies at a different place. Take now my last piece of advice: Exegesis, Exegesis, and once more, Exegesis! If I have become a dogmatician, it is because I long before have endeavored to carry on exegesis. Let the systematic art, which can also make one mad, rest a little and hold on to the Word, to the Scriptures, which is given to us and become perhaps less systematic and more biblical theologians. For then the systematic and dogmatic tasks will certainly be taken care of as well. That is what I wanted to say to you and in this way I wish to be you farewell.
I was glad to be among you. I enjoyed working with you, and will fondly remember the time. In view of this, but much more in view of the Word which called us and held us together and which we once again have heard in this hour I would now like to conclude very encouragingly with the word Jonathan said to David: ‘And as for the matter about which you and I have spoken, behold, the Lord is between you and me for ever.'”
See also the following long quote from the 35 year old Barth on exegesis, commentary-writing. His comments would also apply to preaching and doing “dogmatics” (theology) as well I think.
Karl Barth, “The Preface to the Second Edition (1921)” in The Epistle to the Romans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933), 7-8. (See all of pages 6-12 for this full argument).
So long as the critic is occupied in this preliminary work I follow him carefully and gratefully. So long as it is simply a question of establishing what stands in the text, I have never dreamed of doing anything else than sit attentively at the feet of such learned men as Jülicher, Lietzmann, Zahn, and Kühl, and also at the feet of their predecessors, Tholuck, Meyer, B. Weiss, and Lipsius. When, however, I examine their attempts at genuine understanding and interpretation, I am again and again surprised how little they even claim for their work. By genuine understanding and interpretation I mean that creative energy which Luther exercised with intuitive certainty in his exegesis: which underlies the systematic interpretation of Calvin; and which is at least attempted by such modern writers as Hofmann. J. T. Beck, Godet, and Schlatter. For example, place the work of Jülicher side by side with that of Calvin: how energetically Calvin, having first established what stands in the text, sets himself to re-think the whole material and to wrestle with it, till the walls which separate the sixteenth century from the first become transparent! Paul speaks, and the man of the sixteenth century hears. The conversation between the original record and the reader moves round the subject-matter, until a distinction between yesterday and to-day becomes impossible. If a man persuades himself that Calvin’s method can be dismissed with the old-fashioned motto, “The Compulsion of Inspiration’, he betrays himself as one who has never worked upon the interpretation of Scripture. Taking Jülicher’s work as typical of much modern exegesis, we observe how closely he keeps to the mere deciphering of words as though they were runes. But, when all is done, they still remain largely unintelligible. How quick he is, without any real struggling with the raw material of the Epistle, to dismiss this or that difficult passage as simply a peculiar doctrine or opinion of Paul! How quick he is to treat a matter as explained, when it is said to belong to the religious thought, feeling, experience, conscience, or conviction,—of Paul! And, when this does not at once fit, or is manifestly impossible, how easily he leaps, like some bold William Tell, right out of the Pauline boat, and rescues himself by attributing what Paul has said, to his ‘personality’, to the experience on the road to Damascus (an episode which seems capable of providing at any moment an explanation of every impossibility), to later Judaism, to Hellenism, or, in fact, to any exegetical semi-divinity of the ancient world!
Thank you, Andy. I appreciate the multiple citations. Very helpful.
Andy CBD has the set of 31 vol of dogmatics for $399.99 or if you look as I did for $299.00 on a friday special a couple months ago. Also in Nov they will sell a hard back set for $99.99 you can preorder any time. The 31 vol set translates the latin and greek quote (very helpful).
Karl Barth is amazing person. Ive read the biography and highly recommend! http://findmediafire.com