Karl Barth moved to Bonn, Germany in 1930 to be the chair of systematic theology. In Bonn, Barth would witness firsthand the rise to power of Nazi Germany, write the first volume of his Church Dogmatics (CD I/1), draft the Barmen Declaration, and finally be forced to leave Nazi Germany because he refused to sign an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler in 1935. Barth's most mature theological works dawned while he worked in Bonn. I will discuss this and more in this part 4 of the Life of Karl Barth series. 

Karl Barth's Anselm: Fides Quaerens Intellectum (1931)

In part 3 of the Life of Karl Barth series, I ended when Karl Barth had left the university in Münster to become a professor in Bonn, Germany. "In early 1930, Otto Ritschel, son of Albrecht Ritschel (who had also worked there from 1846 to 1864), retired from the chair of systematic theology in Bonn. Karl Barth was invited to take his place." [1] In the summer semester at Bonn, Karl Barth taught a course on Anselm of Canterbury's Cur Deus Homo? that had a profound effect upon him and the direction of his career. In 1931, as direct result, Barth published his book Anselm: Fides Quaerens Intellectum: Anselm's Proof of the Existence of God in the Context of His Theological Scheme. Barth's Anselm: Fides Quaerens Intellectum is more important for understanding Barth, than it is for understanding Anselm.

Hans Urs Von Balthasar identified Barth's Anselm as the book defining Barth's shift to his most mature theological works namely Barth's Church Dogmatics (13 volumes). 

Fortunately, since the great shift in his thought from dialectics to analogy . . . Barth has expressed himself in such detail and so fully that this time there can really be little doubt of lack of clarity about his opinions. The first work to document this change in his thinking was his book on Anselm's proof for the existence of God, which he himself called the real manifesto of his departure from his first period. But it comes most fully into view in the Church Dogmatics, especially in volume I . . ." [2]

The Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of the Word of God Vol. 1/1 (1932)

Karl Barth began to write a second volume of his Christian Dogmatics (Kirchliche Dogmatik) because the 4,000 copies of the first volume had sold out that was published in 1927 while he was in Münster. After Anselm, Barth realized that he could no longer continue the Christian Dogmatics series, so instead of writing a second volume, or revising the first volume, Barth decided to start over from the beginning, as he did with his The Epistles to the Romans (Der Römerbrief 1919 1st ed., 1921 2nd ed.) 

Barth describes this restart in the preface to the Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of the Word of God Vol I/1 published in 1932:

 . . . the need for my little work on Anselm of Canterbury was so pressing, that I could not pay any attention . . . to the second volume, nor even think of continuing on the level and in the strain of the initial volume of 1927. This first became clear to me, of course, when the four thousand copies of the first edition of what had been published as the first volume began to run out, and I was faced with the task of preparing a second edition. My experience of twelve years ago in re-editing the Römerbrief was repeated. I could still say what I had said. I wished to do so. But I could not do it in the same way. What option had I but to begin again at the beginning, saying the same thing, but in a very different way? [3]

The first recognizable change is the change in title from the Christian Dogmatics to the Church Dogmatics, which Barth intentionally changed to say that dogmatic theology is the church's talk about God. Barth also discusses this in the preface to the Church Dogmatics I/1: 

"But materially I have also tried to show that from the very outset dogmatics is not a free science. It is bound to the sphere of the Church, where alone it is possible and meaningful." [4]

The Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of the Word of God Vol I/1 is too large of a topic to discuss here and now, but it may be summarized as Barth's prolegomena to the entire Church Dogmatics, and presents Barth's three-fold doctrine of the Word of God, and with it, Barth's doctrine of the trinity. To state it more simply, Barth begins with Jesus, and Jesus is the center of Barth's entire theological works. 

Protesting in Nazi Germany

Karl Barth's work in Bonn was quickly disrupted by the rise to power of Nazi Germany and in 1933, Barth was faced with the Nazi take over of the German Evangelical Church (and all the Protestant churches in Germany with it). Barth became an early leader in the Confession Church, and active protestor against the German Christians and their Nationalism. Barth's most protests against this Nazi takeover of the German Evangelical Church was his book Theological Existence Today! (1933) and his first draft of the Theological Declaration of Barmen (1934). Karl Barth's protest against the Nazis was the most significant and influential protest made by a Christian theologian from within Nazi Germany during this early period in Nazi Germany's rise to power, and very few (if anyone at all) matched Barth's loud No! to the Nazis after 1933—Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a few other names may be mentioned. Ultimately, Barth's protests had him expelled from Bonn in 1935, when he refused to sign an oath of loyalty to Adolf Hitler. 

John Webster in his book on Karl Barth, provides a very helpful summary of Barth's protests against Nazi Germany:

"For Barth, a much more important critical task lay to hand in articulating a theological basis for the church's action in response to the Nazi takeover of Germany. In the early 1930s Barth found himself occupying a key role in church politics, in face of 'a gigantic revelation of human lying and brutality on the one hand, and of human stupidity and fear on the other'. His leadership, both in the stream of writings—most of all Theological Existence Today—and in active participation in the nascent Confessing Church, symbolized in his major role in drafting the Barmen Theological Declaration in 1934, was of critical significance. More, perhaps, than any other Protestant leader in Germany at the time, Barth was free of the desire to retain the social and cultural prestige of the church at any price, and could bring to bear on the events of the Nazi takeover a startlingly clear theological position in which the church was wholly defined by its confession of Jesus Christ as 'the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death'. Barth's leadership in German church life was cut short by his dismissal from his teaching position and his return to Switzerland in 1935." [5]

Karl Barth's No! to Emil Brunner's Natural Theology

After the Barmen Declaration, and before he was thrown out of Germany by the Nazis, Karl Barth had a tragic feud with his long time friend Emil Brunner (1886-1966) over natural revelation and natural theology. Barth was insistent (rightly) that the revelation of God was Jesus Christ alone, as witnessed by the holy scriptures in the threefold form as written, revealed and proclaimed, as in these three exist in unity. Barth insisted that there was no other source of revelation, and was Barth was so bold that he called the analogia entis (analogy of being) or natural revelation, the antichrist in the preface to his Christian Dogmatics I/1. Barth's resistance to natural revelation, or any natural theology developed upon Natural Revelation was directed at the German Christians who had taken over the church and had used the leadership principles of Adolf Hitler and Nazi ideology to change the Church's teachings. 

When his friend Emil Brunner pushed Nature and Grace (1934) arguing for a "point of contact" for natural revelation, Karl Barth was enraged that Brunner had advocated for natural revelation, and Barth wrote an infamous and angry response titled Nein! (or No!) where Barth derided Brunner, and this pamphlet war between them ended their friendship for the rest of their lives. Brunner's Nature and Grace and Barth's No! are available in a single book: Natural Theology: Comprising Nature and Grace by Professor Dr. Emil Brunner and the reply No! by Dr. Karl Barth. Karl Barth fully developed his rejection of Natural Theology years later in his Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of God Vol II/1. 

After Nazi Germany was defeated in World War II, and the threat of Nazi ideology in the form of natural revelation or natural theology had ended, Karl Barth returned to the subject of Natural Theology, and developed his own natural theology in his Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of Reconciliation Vol IV/3.1 (1959) commonly known as Secular Parables that is remarkably similar to what his friend-turned-enemy had written in 1934. As Emil Brunner lay dying, Karl Barth made some effort to reconcile with Emil Brunner, where Barth's concluding word to Brunner in a correspondence of letters was no longer No! but a Yes to us all.

Karl Barth's No to Hitler's Oath of Loyalty

In 1935, Karl Barth refused to sign Hitler's Oath of Loyalty and this lead to his deportation from Nazi Germany.

Adolf Hitler's Oath of Loyalty (1934): "I swear: I will be faithful and obedient to the leader of the German Empire and people, Adolf Hitler, to observe the law, and to conscientiously fulfill my official duties, so help me God." [6]

Barth said that "Granted, 'I did not refuse to give the official oath, but I stipulated an addition to the effect that I could be loyal to the Führer only within my responsibilities as an Evangelical Christian" [7]. On 1 March 1935, Barth was "served with a total ban on public speaking - at the station in Bon (verbally, by the Gestapo)" [8]. Barth boldly and defiantly gave a final sermon on March 26th, at the "Second Free Reformed Synod in St. Nicolas' church at Siegen" [9]. Barth was subsequently escorted out of Germany. 

David Guretzki summarizes Barth's deportation by the Gestapo in his book An Explorer's Guide to Karl Barth: 

Barth did not refuse to give an oath of loyalty but did ask that his oath be qualified in such a way that he would swear allegiance to the Führer "only within my responsibilities as an Evangelical Christian." . . . His proposal was presented to the appropriate officials but was turned down, after which his position as professor was suspended. He was tried before three judges, found guilty, sentenced, and eventually dismissed from his post, after which he was required to leave the country. Barth returned to Basel under a police escort, with whom he had a freindly chat about the gospel, in March 1935. [10] 

So in 1935, Barth returned to his homeland of Basel, Switzerland. 

To be continued...

 

 

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The Life of Karl Barth series:

1. The Life of Karl Barth: Early Life from Basel to Geneva 1886-1913 (Part 1)
2. The Life of Karl Barth: The Red Pastor of Safenwil 1909-1921 (Part 2)
3. The Life of Karl Barth: The Romans road to the Church Dogmatics 1921-1930 (Part 3)
4. The Life of Karl Barth: Protesting in Nazi Germany 1930-1935 (Part 4)
5. The Life of Karl Barth: Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Basel during World War II 1935-1946 (Part 5)
6. The Life of Karl Barth: Church Dogmatics Vol III: The Doctrine of Creation 1945-1951 (Part 6)
7. The Life of Karl Barth: Church Dogmatics Vol IV: The Doctrine of Reconciliation 1953-1967 (Part 7)
8. The Life of Karl Barth: Trip to America in 1962 (Part 8)
9. Coming soon . . .

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Sources:

1. Busch, Eberhard. Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts. W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1994. Print. 199. 

2. Hans Urs Von Balthasar, Theology of Karl Barth, (Edinburgh:1992, T & T Clark), p. 137

3. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of the Word of God Vol I/1, (2001: T&T Clark). Preface.

4. Ibid. Barth. CD I/1. Preface.

5. John Webster, Karl Barth (Outstanding Theological Thinkers), Continuum, New York, 2004, p. 7-8

6. Wikipedia contributors, "Hitler oath," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hitler_oath&oldid=840142298 (accessed June 8, 2018).

7. Ibid. Busch. 255

8. Ibid. Busch. 259

9. Ibid. Busch. 259

10. David Guretzki, An Explorer's Guide to Karl Barth. (Downers Grove: 2016, IVP Academic, an Imprint of InterVarsity), print. 34-35.  

 

Related: Adolf Hitler, barmen declaration, Bonn, CD I/1, Church Dogmatics I/1, Confessing Church, David Guretzki, Der Romerbrief, Epistle to the Romans, John Webster, Karl Barth, life of karl barth, Nazi, Nazi Germany, Oath of Loyalty, Theological Declaration of Barmen, Theological Existence Today