Christ and theology: a study in Karl Barth

Abstract

This thesis is presented as a critical analysis of Karl Earth's work which attempts to be philosophically and theologically literate. It tries to bring out the pervasive influence of Kant upon Karl Barth, in particular upon Fides Quaerens Intellectum, a work which concludes with a stinging attack upon Kant's version of the ontological argument, and yet which owes so much to a Kantian dualism for its own conclusions. The work is also intended as criticism of Professor T.F. Torrance's interpretation of Karl Barth, which we regard as philosophically untenable because resting upon a false epistemology. We believe that Professor Torrance is one of many interpreters of Karl Barth who have yet to come to terms with the issues raised for theological realism by the epistemological revolution brought about largely through Kant's influence. We also offer a theological critique of Barth. His theology is, we believe, based upon a form of Christocentrism which has been criticised as 'Christomonist'. We attempt to develop this criticism with our own interpretation of it in this thesis. Finally, we conclude with the argument that a properly Christocentric theology must always understand the nature of God in terms of the form of His self-disclosure in Christ. There must be no sense in which the cry 'Let God be God!' seems rather to override than to call attention to the fact that God was in Christ. We believe that Barth does not consistently hold to this principle in his work, and that consequently there is a dimension to God's being in Christ which is lacking in his theology. We believe that this dimension is a Kenotic one.