GOD IN ACTION
Theological Addresses
BY KARL BARTH
PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BASEL BASEL, SWITZERLAND
English Translation by
E. G. HOMRIGHAUSEN
MINISTER, EVANGELICAL AND REFORMED CHURCH LECTURER, BUTLER UNIVERSITY, INDIANAPOLIS
KARL J. ERNST
PROFESSOR OF EXEGESIS
MISSION HOUSE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, PLYMOUTH
Introduction by
JOSIAS FRIEDLI
PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY
MISSION HOUSE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, PLYMOUTH
TRANSLATION AUTHORIZED AND APPROVED BY KARL BARTH AND CHRISTIAN KAISER VERLAG, MUNICH
Wipf and Stock Publishers
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God In Action
By Barth, Karl
Copyright©1936 Theologischer Verlag Zurich
ISBN: 1-59752-426-3
EISBN: 978-1-4982-7076-2
Publication date 11/1/2005
Previously published by Round Table Press, Inc, 1936
Copyright©1936 Original German version published by Theologischer Verlag Zurich
THESE chapters are a collection of addresses delivered by Karl Barth to various groups. Since the discontinuance of the periodical Zwischen den Zeiten, he and Eduard Thurneysen have edited a series of pamphlets entitled Theologische Existenz Heute. These addresses were published in the latter series of pamphlets in different numbers.
The three addresses, on “Revelation,” “Church,” and “Theology,” Professor Barth explains, “were delivered by invitation of the Free Protestant Theological Faculty in Paris, France, from April tenth to twelfth, 1934.”
The address on “The Ministry of the Word of God” was “delivered on September eleventh, 1934, at a meeting of pastors of the western section of Switzerland in Vaumarcus, Canton Neufchatel, in French, and redelivered in the original German on September twelfth at Pratteln, Canton Baselland, at a pastors’ conference.” The theme of the address was assigned to Professor Barth by those who sponsored the meeting in western Switzerland. It touches upon something quite akin to the subject of the last chapter in this book concerning the Christian as a witness, which was published as number twelve in the Theologische Existenz Heute.
The chapter on “The Christian as Witness” is a “stenographic report of an address delivered on the seventh of August, 1934, at the International Summer Conference for Students at La Chataigneraie, near Coppett, in Canton Vaud, Switzerland.” This theme was also assigned to Professor Barth.
The “Appendix” contains “added stenographic reports of the discussions which followed the address on ‘The Christian as Witness.’ The German language was used both in the addresses and the discussions. But two interpreters, well versed in the subject matter and in their respective languages, rendered them into French and English.”
E. G. H.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
IV.THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD OF GOD
AMERICAN religious leaders are beginning to manifest a new interest in basic theological problems. The reasons for this are quite evident. Our feverish activism, our easy optimism, and our confidence in automatic inevitable progress have been severely shaken and have given place to a feeling of helpless bewilderment. It is in such times of confusion and uncertainty that men seek the deeper realities of life. The periods of great theological vigor were also the periods of widespread confusion and disorder. Augustine wrote his Confessions while the Roman empire was breaking under the pressure of the invading barbarians. Calvin’s Institutes came out of the religious and political turmoil of his time and was written in flight from political injustice. The great vital productive ages in the history of the Church were the “creed-making,” not the “creed-reciting” ages. It is when men wrestle with truth, when they face the deepest problems of life, which are always theological, that the Church is established through the witness to the truth.
Of course, we still have those who have “done” with theology—though as a matter of fact they never began. But there is a growing number among us, who are earnestly seeking sounder foundations, who are looking away from the frail supports of man-made plans and human ways, unto the living God revealed in Jesus Christ. To such these chapters will be a welcome aid in their search.
These chapters will also be of interest to those who are trying to learn what Karl Barth stands for in the theological world. For the English reader it has been difficult to obtain first-hand information, especially as to Barth’s positive and constructive theology. Much, indeed, has been written about him, but both his friends and his foes, by their interpretations and criticisms, have frequently beclouded the real issues. The two
