Professor William Werpehowski - Karl Barth and Christian Ethics: Living in Truth

This critical study of Karl Barths Christian theological ethics discusses Barths controversial and characteristically misunderstood ethics of divine command. The surprising relation of his divine command ethics to contemporary narrative theology and virtue ethics and specific moral themes concerning bonds between parents and children, the nature of truth telling, and the meaning of Christian love of God and neighbour are all discussed. This book reveals Barths richness, depth and insight, and places his work in constructive connection with salient themes in both Catholic and Protestant ethics.

Barth Studies

Series Editors

John Webster, University of Aberdeen, UK

George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA

Hans-Anton Drewes, Karl Barth Archive, Switzerland

The work of Barth is central to the history of modern western theology and remains a major voice in contemporary constructive theology. His writings have been the subject of intensive scrutiny and re-evaluation over the past two decades, notably on the part of English-language Barth scholars who have often been at the forefront of fresh interpretation and creative appropriation of his theology. Study of Barth, both by graduate students and by established scholars, is a significant enterprise; literature on him and conferences devoted to his work abound; the Karl Barth Archive in Switzerland and the Center for Barth Studies at Princeton give institutional profile to these interests. Barths work is also considered by many to be a significant resource for the intellectual life of the churches.

Drawing from the wide pool of Barth scholarship, and including translations of Barths works, this series aims to function as a means by which writing on Barth, of the highest scholarly calibre, can find publication. The series builds upon and furthers the interest in Barths work in the theological academy and the church.

Barths Interpretation of the Virgin Birth
A Sign of Mystery
Dustin Resch

Ethics with Barth: God, Metaphysics and Morals
Matthew Rose

Karl Barth on the Filioque
David Guretzki

Karl Barth and the Fifth Gospel
Barths Theological Exegesis of Isaiah
Mark S. Gignilliat

A Shorter Commentary on Romans by Karl Barth
With an Introductory Essay by Maico Michielin
Maico M. Michielin

Living in Truth

WILLIAM WERPEHOWSKI
Georgetown University, USA

ASHGATE

William Werpehowski 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

William Werpehowski has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited
Wey Court East
Union Road
Farnham
Surrey, GU9 7PT
England

Ashgate Publishing Company
110 Cherry Street
Suite 3-1
Burlington
VT 05401-3818
USA

www.ashgate.com

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Werpehowski, William.

Karl Barth and Christian Ethics: Living in Truth / by William Werpehowski.

pages cm. (Barth Studies)

Includes index.

1. Barth, Karl, 1886-1968. 2. Christian ethics. I. Title.

BX4827.B3W44 2013

241dc23 2013020872

ISBN 9781472400505 (hbk)

ISBN 9781409438762 (ebk-PDF)

ISBN 9781472400505 (ebk-ePUB)

For
Robert W. Jenson
who helped get me started and then, quietly, kept me going

For more than three decades, the Yale-Princeton Theology Group has been a standing help and inspiration to me. I am particularly indebted to the members who came together at Princeton Theological Seminary in June 2012 to discuss a draft of this bookJames Buckley, Joseph Mangina, Michael Root, Katherine Sonderegger, Kathryn Tanner, Thomas Tracy, and our host, George Hunsinger. George, along with John Webster, continue to be especially supportive of my work on Karl Barths theology and ethics, and their critical influence on much of what I have to say here is enormous.

I also want to thank the following colleagues and friends for their generosity and guidance: Patrick Brennan, Lisa Sowle Cahill, Jesse Couenhoven, Kathryn Getek Soltis, Eric Gregory, Anthony Godzieba, James M. Gustafson, Amy Laura Hall, Stanley Hauerwas, Kevin Hughes, Mark Husbands, Mary Jo Iozzio, Patricia Beattie Jung, James Keenan, Aryeh Kosman, Robin Lovin, Eugene McCarraher, Bruce McCormack, Anne McGuire, Gerald McKenny, Gilbert Meilaender, Anna Moreland, Michael Moreland, Fran OBrien, Douglas Ottati, Gene Outka, Stephen Pope, Jean Porter, Deborah Roberts, Matthew Rose, Edmund N. Santurri, Douglas Schuurman, William Schweiker, Thomas W. Smith, Jeffrey Stout, Darlene Fozard Weaver, Sondra Wheeler, and Diane Yeager.

In the last stages of writing, I was happy and grateful to receive the support of the Robert L. McDevitt, K.S.G., K.C.H.S and Catherine H. McDevitt L.C.H.S. Professorship in Catholic Theology at Georgetown University.

Robert Jenson has been more important to me in my vocation as a Christian ethicist than he knows. But he should know, and so I dedicate this book to him.

* * *

International, 1998), 11229; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, for In Search of Real Children: Innocence, Absence, and Becoming a Self in Christ, in The Vocation of the Child, ed. Patrick Brennan and John Coons (2008), 5374; the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, for Practical Wisdom and the Integrity of Christian Life, 27/2 (Fall/Winter 2007), 5572.

This book is the product of many years of studying and thinking about the character and value of Karl Barths Christian ethics. I have tried throughout that time and in these pages to be true to Barths fundamental theological vision while relating his work to other accounts of the Christian life and a variety of specific moral issues. I would be pleased if my readers, whatever their expertise in Barth may be, will come away with a deeper comprehension of his ethics and a greater readiness to think critically with him in conversations about what Christians ought to be and to do.

Four salient themes in Barths theology are particularly relevant to this study. The first and most fundamental is that the Christian Gospel is Gods joyful news, freely given to us, of Gods sovereign decision to be for us in Jesus Christ. Indeed, the existence of Jesus Christ is the sovereign decision upon the existence of every woman and man.

In this one man God sees every man, all of us, as through a glass. Through this medium, through this Mediator, we are known and seen by God. And we may, and should, understand ourselves as men made known to Him in this way. Before his eyes from eternity God keeps men, each man, in Him, in this One; and not only before His eyes but loved and elect and called and made His possession. In Him he has from eternity bound Himself to each, to all. Along the entire line it holds, from the creatureliness of man, through the misery of man, to the glory promised to man.

Second, both the subject and the object of the Gospel, the Word of God given to humanity, are rooted in freedom. The good news is a free gift, and for Barth this means that without any possibility on our side Gods great possibility comes into view, making possible what was impossible from our side, i.e., the joyful, reconciling and redeeming meeting between God and Gods wayward human creatures. The gift comes to us unearned and unexacted, and it is grace all over again if our eyes and ears are opened to this grace.same time a freedom from the vain and futile burden of trusting in ourselves and the goals of our making.