Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 110:438 (Apr 1953)
Article: The Barthian Doctrine of Salvation Part 1
Author: James F. Rand

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The Barthian Doctrine of Salvation
Part 1

James F. Rand

There are many acid tests by which the validity and Scripturality of a theological system may be determined. Certainly one of the most significant is an investigation of its soteriology, its doctrine of salvation. The theology of Karl Barth will be subjected to this acid test in the present series of two articles. The first article will deal with man the sinner and God the saviour. Barth’s testimony will be found to ring true for the most part in these areas. However, in the second article which will deal with the faith that saves, the Swiss theologian will be found wanting in a number of points.

Although it is not determinative, the very fact that it is difficult to find in any of Barth’s writings a clear-cut Biblically based statement of what he believes the total salvation experience to be does not speak highly of the practicality of this theological system. While it is recognized that the European mind functions in somewhat of a different pattern than that of the American, it is still true nevertheless that, for a doctrine of salvation to be effective in reaching the hearts of the lay people in the pews, it must be stated in clear language and in terms which the people can understand.

The lack of such a statement of his doctrinal position is not the only difficulty which faces the investigator. Barth in his magnum opus, “Kirchliche Dogmatik,” has not yet reached the area of soteriology in either the German editions or those which have been translated into English. Only in several small volumes, the most recent of which is Dogmatics in Outline,1 has he approached anywhere near a complete exposition of his theological position. It is our purpose to use such a work, an exposition of the Apostles’ Creed given as a series of lectures to a group of German students in 1946,

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as the basic text for this investigation, referring to his Römerbrief and the commentaries of other men upon his theology only when necessary. That this is a valid method is attested by Barth himself, who declares in the foreword to Dogmatics in Outline: “Attentive readers of this book will scarcely discover…much that is essentially new; and those who read the larger volumes of the Kirchliche Dogmatik, nothing at all.”2

A third difficulty is the dialectical method of Barth. This is not as evident in Dogmatics in Outline as in the Römerbrief and other works of Barth, but it does present a real problem. It is difficult to obtain an adequate understanding of the doctrines ...