Karl Barth
To further his education, Karl went to Berlin, Tubingen and Marburg, where he had an opportunity to be taught by Adolf von Harnack and Wilhelm Herrmann whose theologies were of great inspiration. These professors embraced the Protestantism theology which fostered the understanding of God through the appreciation of His work. The emergence of World War I led to the development of Barths theologies which considered the supremacy of God over all other things. This was an opposition to the theologies of his teachers which allowed the participation in wars.
Karl arrived at this decision after reconsidering the move of his teachers to sign their allegiance to the war plans of the German government of which he was against. Based on his teachings and theological understanding, Barth believed that most churches as preachers were diverting attention from serving God to fulfilling human desires. According to Barth, spreading the word of God in a more objective and non-dogmatic manner serve as the best form of worship, that is God inclined. It is such beliefs that should guide all mans actions in attempts to understand God and the role of time in salvation, in appreciating Jesus duality, role of sacramental and being born again and how fundamentalism and subjective theological teachings led to escalation of the World wars.
Discussions
The book entitled Church dogmatic written by Karl Barth, gives an insight into the understanding of the theological approaches that the author is embracing. Karl explains his stand on the approach that best suits the delivery of service aimed at glorifying God rather than man-kind. He focuses on Christianity, with emphasis on the Holy Trinity of God to explain his theological stand and religious functions of Gods revelation to human beings. He elaborates how divine revelation is manifested and the effects it may present on human beings.
He questions the approaches to religion, used by other theologians, and opposes the incorporation of different cultures and political movements in the running of the church or the society. The reason he gives for this is that we, as human beings, and sinners before the eyes of God, should be more critical of ours theological approaches to center them on how God will reach at us rather than how we could reach him.
The Biblical teachings are mostly employed by the author in giving reasons for the adoption of this approach of entitling God to supernatural powers. This implies that the consequences of human deeds should never be attributed to the will of God, who is, according to Karl Barths doctrine a loving and peaceful God. Human religion is considered to present problems to the understanding of Gods revelation as well as in the development of theological doctrines.
Based on the review of the article entitled Karl Barth a brief introduction Time and eternity by Flemming Nielsen it is evident that the theological school of thought as depicted by Barth was characterized by need for logical thought and objective approach to interpretation of Christian faith , as well as prediction of an end to Christendom.
Barth in case was rather determined to promote theological knowledge that is based on true understanding and interpretation of the scriptures more the issues relating to time, eternity and revelation. Nielsen (3) argues that in the book The Epistle to the Romans, the author sought to discredit the protestant culture, more so in relation to interpretation of time as well as eternal life.
Based on the concept of chronistic, Barth argued that time is something of higher reality as understood by man as God, while eternity is depicted as a dependent time factor that is basically a never-ending time component. Barth thus had three classifications of time. First, there is the past time, a bygone that can only be reflected upon or be forgotten, but cannot be reversed.
Secondly, there is time of Resurrection and Easter, which is mainly based in the New Testament (Nielsen, 4). This time is a very important part of theology and gospel as it is marked by narratives that give an account of Jesus, His Resurrection and assumption. This period lasts for about 40 days. The Christians use this time to reflect on the suffering and death of Jesus. The paradox that is a theological debate has it that Jesus public life was not known, but the lent period gave Him more lime light and well as enchantment of His Accessibility. Lastly, there is time period that talks about the human nature of Jesus and how being God as well as man at the same time were possible.
This is called dual representational aspect (Nielsen, 4). This duality concept has it that by having God represented in Him , it can be argued that God stayed in the world. On the human side, the duality concept has it that by coming in human form, it can be deduced that mankind was represented, through Jesus, to God. Summarily, Barth argued that the duality idea points out the fact that if determined as an individual, it I would be easy for one be elected and allowed to join God.
The controversies surrounding the life and theological teachings of Barth were also evident through his teachings sacramental. Under the theological belief in neo-reformation and preaching of New Word, he argued that sacramental such as baptism is core ways through which the word can be spread. Controversy however arose from the argument that an infant cannot receive the word, that is, through baptism as they cannot experience the real faith of being born again. According to him, it beats logic to argue that the parents can agree on behalf of an infant for the child to be baptized. This was viewed as an agreement through proxies that may not enhance spread of the word and second birth.
Mangina, in his book entitled Karl Barth theologian of Christian witness tries to give an insight into the life of Karl Barth and his theological approaches. Karl Berth was a theologian who developed theological approach which was based on the prioritizing God before all movements and ideological programmes.
He never embraced the incorporation of cultures or political influences in the definition of God contrary to what most of the theologians of that time believed in. He was thus more of a rebel who sought to act and think independently. Apart from Manginas arguments, similar sentiments have been echoed by Nielsen (3) who argues that Barths analysis and critique of theological teachings and doctrines were carried out without any influence from the mythic arguments. As such, mythic issues relating time, as revealed by purported Gods interactions with man as revealed by narratives were considered by Barth as immaterial. These myths, termed by Barth as sagas were viewed as misleading and only sound true if the presentations or supposedly factual messages are confined within a given epoch as well as space.
The author explains that Karl was able to influence the ideologies of other theologians and thus fostering the adoption of this theological approach. However, many people considered his ideologies to violate the world religious order, and incapable of serving the modern era since there rapid social changes and cultural integrations were realized after the World War II. Karl Barths theology was regarded by many as a something of the past as it embraced the use of the bible in explaining most of his theological aspects.
Korringe explains the problems that are associated with the adoption of catholic theological doctrines and thus the adoption of hegemony. This book tries to explore the oppression of the people that emancipates from the dictatorship forms of governments instituted in place. These forms of governments are a product of varied theological doctrines adopted following the emergence of World War II, by different religious groups aimed at strengthening their nations army. In spite of the decision of various religious groups to adopt theological doctrines that allows the participation of Christians in wars, some theologians such as Karl Barth were against the move.
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment