Welcome back to another edition of Book Notes. One of the most exciting events that the Center for Barth Studies hosts is the Karl Barth Conference. These conferences host a variety of esteemed speakers on an equally varied number of topics. Many of these conferences find their way to publication, which should excite those who wish to read the conference papers more closely. In this edition of Book Notes, we review a few of these publications in hopes that you might consider purchasing these texts and attending future conferences.
Daniel L. Migliore (ed.), Reading the Gospels with Karl Barth (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2017), x–226. (Paperback)
The first book comes from the 2015 Karl Barth Conference on Barth and the Gospels. This text and conference featured the late theologian Jürgen Moltmann who presented a paper that critically engaged Barth’s doctrine of predestination. The theme of this book matches the conference, namely the exploration of Barth’s exegetical work. The scholars in this book focus on particular passages in the Gospels and how Barth interprets these texts for readers. Of particular interest is how Barth’s exegesis informs contemporary biblical and theological scholarship. For many presenters, Barth’s work energizes a specific kind of work and stimulates great analysis of texts that are often taken for granted.
A particular essay in this book illustrates this well, which is Willie James Jennings’s essay on the Rich Young Ruler. Using Barth’s interpretation of this famous passage, Jennings narrates a compelling story. Jennings argues that the Gospel writer and Barth’s interpretation unmasks the sin of mastery, particularly the mastery of the Western masculine frame. As Jennings understands, the invitation of Christ to the rich young ruler is an invitation to a kind of freedom different than the dominant discourse of the day, namely freedom from self-mastery. Jennings concludes with the anxieties of Peter expressed in the passage about leaving everything to follow Jesus. In particular, Jennings locates the anxiety and subsequent freedom that Jesus commands in a financial register so readers, hearing Barth’s interpretation, might divest from the ensnaring logic of capital and walk in freedom with Christ.
Reading the Gospels with Karl Barth is a theological gift to those working at the crossroads of exegesis and theology. In addition to Jennings and Moltmann, the book features essays from scholars such as Richard Bauckham, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Bruce McCormack, Fleming Rutledge, and many more. A book that is fit for students and scholars alike, it rewards readers who engage with it.
Kaitlyn Dugan and Paul Dafydd Jones (eds.), Karl Barth and Liberation Theology (New York: T&T Clark, 2023), xi–251. (paperback/hardcover)
The next volume contains several papers from the 2018 Karl Barth Conference. This conference brought the theology of Karl Barth into conversation with the vast literature of liberation theology. The authors of this text clarify that liberation theology does not require legitimation through a conversation with Barth, but Barth’s work might benefit from greater attention to liberation theology. The chapters in this book contain both criticism and appreciation of Barth’s work. Such a balance is much needed in Barth Studies.
The essays utilize Barth and liberation theology to form theologically nuanced responses to the most pressing concerns of the day. Readers will find essays on race and racism in the United States; changing understandings of sex, gender, and sexuality; the ongoing degradation of the ecosphere; the relationship between faith, theological reflection, and the arts; decolonizing Christian thought; and perspectives on ecclesial and political life in the Global South.
Brian Bantum’s essay on Barth’s theological method and the arts is an essay that names the constructive approach of the overall book. In this essay, Bantum develops a literary theology, which he sketches in conversation with Barth’s famous The Epistle to the Romans. As a scholarly work, the commentary provides an artistic lens with liberating possibilities. Though Barth is a central figure of this work, Bantum argues that one must go beyond Barth to realize the liberating possibilities toward which his theology gestures.
With essays from Hanna Reichel, Faye Bodley-Dangelo, Graham Ward, Luis Rivera-Pagan, and many more, this text offers a new horizon for Barth Studies.
Kaitlyn Dugan & Philip Ziegler (eds.), The Finality of the Gospel: Karl Barth and the Tasks of Eschatology (Boston: Brill. 2022), vii–229. (Paperback)
The final volume fittingly covers eschatology in Barth’s theology. Students of Barth will know that he died before he could begin writing Church Dogmatics vol. V: The Doctrine of Redemption. However, Barth left behind a large corpus of work on eschatology. The Finality of the Gospel: Karl Barth and the Tasks of Eschatology contains many papers from the 2019 Karl Barth Conference on the same topic. The essays are from noted scholars in systematic theology and New Testament studies. Many of the essays attempt a fresh and interdisciplinary engagement with Paul and Barth on the themes of eschatology. Like all of the essays described in this Book Notes, these essays are rich in their theological engagement. The conference locates Barth and Paul in a similar dogmatic study of the Last Things as a means not merely to repeat the work of Barth but to break new ground with his work.
An essay of particular insight is the titular essay, “The Finality of the Gospel” written by Beverly Roberts Gaventa. This lecture-turned-essay covers the contested chapters Romans 9–11 in Barth’s Römerbrief. Juxtaposing Barth’s exegesis with her own, Gaventa highlights the problems and promises of Barth’s imposition of the Church in his exegesis over Paul’s appeal to the people of Israel. Gaventa does not let Barth off the hook in his interpretation but seeks new depths in his thoughts and the implications therein for biblical studies.
This book will appeal to those in both Pauline Studies and Barth Studies with essays from Douglas Campbell, Philip Ziegler, Susan Eastman, Christiane Tietz, and many more.
That concludes another edition of Book Notes. These three texts represent the very best of our Barth conferences. If you like what you read, consider joining us for our conference next year. Preliminary details can be found on here. Thank you for reading, and I will see you next month for another Book Notes. If you have books you would like to see included in our monthly reviews, please email me at hank.spaulding@ptsem.edu.
— Hank Spaulding, Editorial Assistant