After March 26th, 1935 Karl Barth was deported from Nazi Germany via police escort to Switzerland because he refused to sign the Nazi "Oath of Loyalty" without modification to Adolf Hitler (also known as "Hitler's Oath"). After arriving in Switzerland, Barth became the Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Basel at the precipice of World War II and continued his work (with Charlotte von Kirschbaum) on his magnum opus the Church Dogmatics. Despite Barth's deportation, his work with the Confessing Church (exemplified by Barth's Barmen Declaration) continued. In Basel, Barth embarked upon his Church Dogmatics that would occupy him for the rest of his life and spanned 13 books within four volumes (Barth never completed his planned and highly speculated fifth and final volume of the  Church Dogmatics). 

Criticism of the Confessing Church

On October 7th, 1935 Karl Barth made a risky returned to Barmen, Germany—the same place where he had written the Barmen Declaration (1934)—to give a lecture on "Gospel and Law", but the lecture was "full to overflowing and watched by the Gestapo." [1]. Karl Barth returned to Switzerland that same evening, "the Gestapo found it necessary to accompany us to the border in the slow overnight train. Barth was not to set foot on German soil again for ten years—and what a decade that was!" [2]

Barth's role in the Confessing Church diminished as time passed in Basel Switzerland, and Barth also became an outspoken critic of the Confessing Church and reprimanded it for not acting earlier.  In Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts, Eberhard Busch explains Barth's criticism with a quotation:

"A striking feature of Barth's remarks on the church struggle after his return to Switzerland was a certain critical note, even against the Confessing Church, which became increasingly stronger. This made his position more and more lonely. He thought that 'one can and must reproach this Confessing Church for failing to recognize the real danger from the enemy early on and for not opposing the enemy from the start with the Word of God which judges human deceit and injustice, as was its duty as the church of Jesus Christ.'" [3]

Rejection of infant baptism and other theological writings

In 1935-1946, Karl Barth was deported from Nazi Germany and left his tumultuous life there behind. Barth's time shifted from work in the Confessing Church to academic work as a professor at the University of Basel where he devoted his time to lecturing and writing theology as an extension of it, including multiple books in his Church Dogmatics (1932-1967), and The Faith of the Church: A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed According to Calvin's Catechism (1940),  Shorter Commentary on Romans (1941) and The Teaching of the Church Regarding Baptism (1943). (I highly recommend The Faith of the Church as an accessible introduction to Barth's theology). 

Karl Barth was a Reformed theologian and minister, so many were surprised by Barth's criticism of infant baptism (or paedobaptism) in his book The Teaching of the Church Regarding Baptism (1943). Barth argued that baptism was grounded in Jesus Christ, and he defended his argument by appealing to the John the Baptist's call for repentance. Barth explicitly rejected the idea of rebaptism that is popular among American Baptists today. Karl Barth was baptized as an infant, and as late as 1965, Karl defended his decision to not be rebaptized. Barth reaffirmed his criticisms and strengthened them in the final published volume of the Church Dogmatics.  (To learn more about Karl Barth's doctrine of baptism, I highly recommend W. Travis McMaken's book The Sign of the Gospel: Toward an Evangelical Doctrine of Infant Baptism after Karl Barth). 

Karl Barth's private life and work during World War II

Although his public life was more peaceful as an academic in Basel, his private life was not free from tempestuous times. Barth's mother Anna Katharina Sartoris died in 1938, and his brother Peter Barth died in 1940 (who was a Calvin scholar). and his son Matthias died in a tragic climbing accident in 1941. Karl Barth's relationship with his brother Heinrich Barth also became strained due to disagreements over philosophy and theology, and I already mentioned the complicated relationship between his wife Nelly Hoffmann due Charlotte Von Kirschbaum living in their family home.

The Church Dogmatics

In 1932, Karl Barth published the first book of the Church Dogmatics (1932-1967), and Barth spent the rest of his life in Basel working on this unfinished summa theology that spanned 13 books divided into 4 volumes. Barth had planned for the Church Dogmatics to have five volumes (the fifth volume was never completed) consisting of "The Doctrine of the Word of God" (CD I), "The Doctrine of God" (CD II), "The Doctrine of Creation" (CD III), "The Doctrine of Reconciliation" (CD IV), and "The Doctrine of Redemption" (CD V). 

The Church Dogmatics was a joint project between Karl Barth and Charlotte Von Kirschbaum (aka Lollo). "Lollo Von Kirschbaum" had moved into the Barth household in 1929 when they were living in Münster, Germany so that Karl and Lollo could work in close proximity. Karl Barth couldn't have written the Church Dogmatics without Charlotte's assistance, and this is demonstrated by the success of the Church Dogmatics for the years Lollo lived in the Barth household. After Aunt Lollo (as Barth's children affectionately called her) was hospitalized, Karl Barth suddenly ended it work on the Church Dogmatics (similar to how Thomas Aquinas abandoned his Summa Theologica). Unfortunately, Lollo's presence in the Barth household caused duress to the Barth family (but not without blessings too), but has also fueled endless controversies spurred moralism and voyeurism by Barth's enemies. 

During World War II, Karl Barth published the next six books in the Church Dogmatics, completing CD I, CD II, and the first book of CD III. Here's a summary of each of these books: 

Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of the Word of God, Vol I/2 (1939) — This book completed the "Doctrine of the Word of God" (CD I) and CD I/2 was twice the size of CD I/1. CD I/2 contains Barth's famous paragraph §17 on "The Revelation of God as the Abolition of Religion", and Barth's doctrine of inspiration of the scriptures in CD I/2's paragraphs 19-21 that includes Barth's argument that biblical inerrancy is a "paper pope", the bible has a "capacity for error", and that the biblical canon remains open. CD I/2 arguably has the most pragmatic value to Evangelical today. 

Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of God, Vol II/1 (1940) — Hans Urs Von Balthasar considered CD II/1 the most important book in the Church Dogmatics, and CD II/1 was the first volume of the Church Dogmatics that I read (I bought vintage copies of CD II/1 & CD II/2 from a used book store). In CD II/1, Karl Barth provided a strong dogmatic argument against Natural Revelation that echoed his No to Emil Brunner in 1934, and justified his famous statement in the at the very beginning of the Church Dogmatics in the preface of CD I/1 that "I regard the analogia entis as the invention of Antichrist." 

Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of God, Vol II/2 (1942) — This book is arguably the greatest achievement in Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics, specifically because of its reconstruction of John Calvin's Doctrine of Election. Barth argues that the doctrine of election is the sum of the gospel and that the doctrine of double predestination is ultimately about the election and rejection of Jesus Christ. Some Barth scholars argue that CD II/2 demarcates the beginning of Karl Barth's most mature theology (e. g. Bruce McCormack) but other argues still maintains that the mature Barth began before CD I/1 (e.g. Hans Urs Von Balthasar, George Hunsinger, etc.) CD II/2 concludes Barth's "Doctrine of God" with an ethical paragraph that became a pattern for the remaining volumes of the Church Dogmatics.

Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of Creation, Vol III/1 (1945) — Barth's "Doctrine of Creation" (CD III) begins with his exegesis of the biblical creation stories in Genesis 1-3, utilizing Barth's concept of Saga described in his "Doctrine of the Word of God" (CD I). CD III/1 also includes Barth's famous twofold statement: "Creation is the external basis of the covenant. Covenant is the internal basis of the creation." 

(I recommend the T&T Clark 31 volume study edition of Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics. Unfortunately, this edition is out of print, but individual books in this study edition of the Church Dogmatics may still be purchased online.)    

Excursus: The silencing of Karl Barth in the Anglosphere during World War II

World War II halted the translation of Karl Barth's books into English. The last English translation of Karl Barth was the first volume of the Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of the Word of God, Vol I/1 was translated into English in 1936 by Prof. G. T. Thomson. Afterwards, virtually none of Karl Barth's writings were translated and distributed to the English speaking world until 1946 when the second volume of the Church Dogmatics I/2 was finally translated into English. Prof. Thomson was also prevented from continuing his translations due to health issues, and it was necessary for his 1936 translation to be updated and retranslated in 1975. The result of this silencing of Karl Barth was that Karl Barth's most important work—the Church Dogmatics—was not accessible to the Anglosphere. 

A select view fundamentalist critics who were able to read Karl Barth's works in Germany, monopolized on this silence during World War II to write scathing rebukes of Karl Barth in English. Barth was unable to defend himself from across the Atlantic in Switzerland, so it was an unfair trial and condemnation of Karl Barth, in which Karl Barth was unable to defend himself. Perhaps the most famous example of this one-sided criticism was Cornelius Van Til's The New Modernism (1946), that caused wide spread distain for Karl Barth in American churches, especially among Van Til's fundamentalist Reformed followers. Van Til said that Karl Barth "possibly the worst heretic of all time" and many other vile things, and his followers believed him, because English translations of Barth's books were not available to fact check Van Til. 

After World War II ended, Barth rebuked Van Til and his cronies, wrote a famous letter rebuking Francis Schaeffer (1950). Afterwards, G. C Berkouwer wrote a book in English that praised Barth's theology called The Triumph of Grace in the Theology of Karl Barth (1954), that Barth praised as well. Van Til continued his barrage of Barth with his essay "Has Karl Barth Become Orthodox" and wrote a book called Christianity and Barthianism (1962) in response. In 1962, Karl Barth came to America for the first time, and lectured across the country, and this event caused the American public to realize it had been deceived by Van Til and others like him. Barth wrote a rebuke of Van Til as well at that time, and Barth was featured on the cover of Time magazine on April 20, 1962. These lectures Barth at Princeton and across the USA are available online, and were subsequently expanded into a book by Karl Barth called Evangelical Theology that remains to be a one of the most beloved books by Karl Barth's by many English speakers to this day.

Conclusion 

In Part 6, I will discuss Karl Barth's life after World War II.

To be continued . . .

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 . . .

Sources:

1. Busch, Eberhard. Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts. W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., 1994. Print. p. 266. 

2. Busch. p. 266.

3. Busch. pp. 272-273