Aspects Of The Soteriology Of Karl Barth -- By: Fred H. Klooster

Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 02:2 (Spring 1959)
Article: Aspects Of The Soteriology Of Karl Barth
Author: Fred H. Klooster


Aspects Of The Soteriology Of Karl Barth

Fred H. Klooster

Read at the Nyack, N. Y. meeting, Dec. 31, 1958.

The appearance of the last twp part-volumes of Karl Barth’s Kirchliche Dogmatik has sparked some interesting theological discussions on soteriology.1 One phase of this discussion concerns the question of a basic change in Barth’s thought. Some think that Barth’s present view of the justification and sanctification of man involves a significant change from his earlier emphasis upon the “infinite qualitative distinction between God and man.” About a decade ago John A. Mackay expressed his concern that Barth, out of fear of subjectivism and mysticism, was producing too exclusive a “theology of light” while ignoring a “theology of life” and Christian experience.2 And although Mackay is not yet entirely satisfied, he now writes in a lyrical vein of “Barth’s loyalty to Christ’s lordship and especially his growing appreciation of that lordship in its implications in the subjective realm of Christian experience.”3Because of the section on sanctification in volume IV/2, Arthur Cochrane suggests that “this latest volume of Barth’s Dogmatics should excite the keenest interest among his practical-minded, yes, activist readers in America.”4

In this connection it is interesting to note that Barth has anticipated a measure of satisfaction with his recent writings on the part of those whom he calls “Pietists and ‘Evangelical groups.’” But he adds that they will obviously not be “entirely satisfied, for at the decisive points they cannot fail to hear something of the rolling thunder of the 1921 Romans even in the more accomodating tones in which I now express the things which particularly affect them.” But what about those who think Barth has actually undergone a significant change in view of his recent writing on the justification and sanctification of man? To them the following words of Barth: “But I seem to hear from one and another, of my former friends and fellows the question whether in the aspect of the matter which is now to the forefront I have not gone too far in what I ascribe to man, rather like an old lion who has finally learned to eat straw… Perspicuous readers will surely notice that there is no break with the basic view which I have adopted since my parting from Liberalism, but only a more consistent turn in its development.”5 When one carefully examines the nature of Barth’s soteriology, I think he will agree w...

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