Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 144:574 (Apr 1987)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Anonymous

BSac 144:574 (Apr 87) p. 218

Periodical Reviews

“The Legacy of Karl Barth (1886–1986),” Thomas F. Torrance, Scottish Journal of Theology 39 (September 1986): 289-308.

Karl Barth was “the most outstanding and consistently evangelical theologian that the world has seen in modern times.” This is Torrance’s assessment of the European theologian whose one hundreth anniversary of birth occurred in 1986. Though Barth died December 10, 1968, his major teaching activity at the University of Basel ceased in 1962. During the years 1950–1960 his influence in Europe began to wane. Bultmann’s star was rising and other theological figures came on the scene. What is Barth’s lasting importance?

Professor Torrance draws parallels between the ministries of Barth and Athanasius. Both came on the scene at a critical time. Both had to battle contra mundum for the truth of the gospel. Both saw the strategic importance of the homoousion, or consubstantiality of the incarnate Son with the Father. Torrance sees another striking parallel in that the significance of each man’s ministry was not immediately recognizable.

Of course Barth’s historical situation differed from that of Athanasius, for Barth wrote after the Reformation and after the rise of modern science. Torrance sees in Barth a theology that is open to the insights of modern science. This assessment may be more a commentary on Torrance’s interests than on Barth’s.

According to Torrance, Barth should be honored as a doctor of the universal church. Barth had to battle against both liberal and fundamentalist theologians. Unfortunately Torrance does not define fundamentalism. The impression is given that perhaps any conservative theology would be considered fundamentalist. He criticizes fundamentalist theology as subordinating the living Word of God to logical propositions deduced from the Scriptures. He also opposes “propositional statements identified with the truth” (p. 297).

BSac 144:574 (Apr 87) p. 219

For Torrance, Barth’s major significance lies in his Christology and Trinitarianism. Barth’s “master conviction” is that “God Himself is the content of His revelation.” Torrance says that Barth’s significance for the church lies precisely in his stress on Jesus Christ as the homoousion. Because He is the homoousion, the Son and the Father are essentially related in being, nature, and agency. Barth in his theology tried to clarify the epistemological and soteriological implications of the homoousion both in revelation and in the doctrine of grace.

To those acquainted with European t...