The Rhetoric of War in Karl Barth's Epistle to the Romans: A Theological Analysis
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Paul Dafydd Jones
Abstract
This essay examines the rhetoric of war in the second edition of Karl Barth's Der Römerbrief. It argues that such rhetoric serves awell-defined purpose, particularly with regard to Barth's theological anthropology. Specifically, the appropriation of language associable with war helps Barth to portray the human being as he or she is confronted – attacked, in fact – by God's majestic, self-sufficient alterity; redefined by Christ's vicarious death, which effects our translation into a new, redeemed condition; and called to a new kind of ethical and political discipleship, pertinent to the challenges faced by Europeans in the aftermath of the Great War. The essay shows, in fact, that the rhetoric of war in Der Römerbrief is not merely symptomatic of the historical context in which Barth wrote. Instead of being controlled by his context, Barth hopes to intervene in it, and enlists the language of war to support a compelling theological proposal.
© Walter de Gruyter 2010
Articles in the same Issue
- Human Action and the Possibility of Reward: Cajetan on Grace, Justification, and Merit
- Geschichte und Kirchengeschichte bei Schleiermacher
- The War Discourses of William Ellery Channing: Pacifism and Just War in Antebellum American Religious Liberalism
- The Mobilization of Intellect: Alfred Loisy's Guerre et religion
- The Rhetoric of War in Karl Barth's Epistle to the Romans: A Theological Analysis
- Revelation Remembered and Expected: Memory, Anticipation and Agency in the Early Barth
- Reviews/Rezensionen
Articles in the same Issue
- Human Action and the Possibility of Reward: Cajetan on Grace, Justification, and Merit
- Geschichte und Kirchengeschichte bei Schleiermacher
- The War Discourses of William Ellery Channing: Pacifism and Just War in Antebellum American Religious Liberalism
- The Mobilization of Intellect: Alfred Loisy's Guerre et religion
- The Rhetoric of War in Karl Barth's Epistle to the Romans: A Theological Analysis
- Revelation Remembered and Expected: Memory, Anticipation and Agency in the Early Barth
- Reviews/Rezensionen
