The ecclesiology of Karl Barth

Abstract

Karl Barth was a reformed theologian. He was born in Basle in 1886, studied in Bern, Berlin, and Tubingen, and finally in Marburg under his favourite teacher W. Herrmann. As his pupil and as an eager reader of Schleiermacher, he followed at that time the direction of liberal theology. After two years as chaplain in Geneva, Barth became Pastor of Safenwill in 1911. His encounter with the Social question, the influence of H. Kutter and L. Ragaz, the awakened interest in the eschatological teaching of Ch. F. Blumhardt (probably as a result of the disillussion brought about by the World War), and finally his reflections on the situation of a preacher who had to explain the message of the Bible to men entangled in the contradictions of life - all these factors induced him to revise his theological position. The result was the first edition of the Epistle to the Romans (1919). He replied to the moral idealism and pietistic individualism with a realistic and cosmic concept of the kingdom of God that unfolds itself like an organism within mankind. [...]