Karl Barth Thinks You Should Be Vegan

Eschatological Ethics in a Meat-Eater’s World

Jan 22, 2024

About the author: Rev. Catherine Tobey is a PhD student in theological ethics at the University of Aberdeen. Drawing on Karl Barth’s theology, her research centers children as the dynamic, interpretive key to understanding and witnessing to the Kingdom of God. She is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and a resident at Tall Timber Ranch, a camp and retreat center in Leavenworth, WA.

As New Year’s resolutions fade, you might find comfort in Karl Barth. After all, he was “appalled at the many people who look upon health itself as a lofty or supreme goal.”¹ Though Barth was critical of those who were “constantly interested in what is good, less good or bad for them,” the truth is efforts like Veganuary are far more complex than a simple diet.2

You might scoff at the idea of going vegan for January, but the impact of this UK-based charity is undeniable. Last year, their social media efforts reached over 155 million people around the world, and folks from everywhere except Vatican City and North Korea pledged to participate.3 If menu adaptations from food service giants, like Ben & Jerry’s and McDonald’s, and endorsements from celebrities like Billie Eilish have not been convincing, maybe it is time to call in Karl Barth.

Admittedly, it would be a stretch to cast Barth as a vegan icon, but his references to a plant-based diet in Church Dogmatics are surprisingly clear. For example, in the Doctrine of Creation, he and Charlotte von Kirschbaum write: “Whether or not we find it practicable and desirable, the diet assigned to [human beings] and [animals] by God the Creator is vegetarian.”4

In the beginning, “[humanity] is nourished by the seeds of vegetables and fruits, and…animals are nourished by grass and plants,” paralleling the peace of the creation narratives.5 Barth explains, “God protected the [animals] from attacks either by [humans] or by one another by referring both to the products of the vegetable kingdom.”6

Unfortunately, as the Fall disrupts the relationship between God and humanity, “the peace between creature and creature is broken and replaced by the struggle for existence.”7 It is here, between creation and the eschaton, that we find ourselves. This “interim period” includes plentiful divine accommodations, including the permission to sacrifice, consume, and otherwise use animals. However, within Barth’s eschatological framework, this is both limited and temporary. After all, we are not left on our own and encouraged to battle it out, nor are we to twiddle our thumbs in dull anticipation of the end of the world. Rather, we live in the tension between the “true and original creative will of God” and the Kingdom come.8

According to Barth, “The final era will bring redemption and perfection…and it will thus include peace between [humanity] and [other animals] in accordance with the commandment of the Creator.”9 Barth goes on to reference Isaiah 11:6,10 Hosea 2:18,11 and Isaiah 65:25, which describe the new heaven and new earth. Consider Isaiah’s depiction of God’s vision for what is ahead: “They’ll build houses and move in. They’ll plant fields and eat what they grow…Wolf and lamb will graze the same meadow, lion and ox eat straw from the same trough. Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill anywhere on my Holy Mountain.”12

If you are thinking, wait a minute, are you saying heaven will be vegan? The answer is an enthusiastic yes. Not there yet, we may find ourselves asking the same question as the author of Romans: “So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving?”13 Or perhaps the better question is: “Should we keep on eating as much bacon and cheese as we can, since it’s technically allowed?”

The alternative, or perhaps better put, the task of the Church, is witnessing to the Kingdom of God. We are like the ten virgins in Matthew 25, standing in “imminent expectation” of the consummation of God’s reconciliation!14 For Barth, this period “is not the time of an empty absence of the Lord, nor is it the time of a bewildering delay in His return, in which it is enough for the community to maintain and help itself as best it can.”15

In the midst of a world brimming with violence, greed, gluttony, and pride, we are called to be heralds of what God has done and the good future that is surely ahead.16 Rather than ignoring or dismissing the atrocities around us, it is ours to name them while looking for glimmers of the Kingdom of God and aligning our lives accordingly. If you are unsure where to start, maybe that is where Veganuary comes in—Why not try it out for the rest of the month?

Veganism is one way to wait for our coming Lord faithfully, and it is shortsighted to limit it to a fad diet or treat it like liberal propaganda. Barth actually warns against dismissing a vegan way of life (even due to seeming “inconsistencies,” “sentimentality,” or “fanaticism”).17 After all, one’s “thoughtlessness and hardness of heart” is not a strong starting point for morality.18

The reasons for veganism also go far beyond Barth’s expertise. For me, on good days, being vegan grounds me in each day (each meal!), reminding me to ask how else God is calling me to witness to the good news. On bad days, it feels more like a rallying cry of rebels, exhausted by the brokenness all around but adamant that something good is around the corner. Every day, I enjoy the privilege of cooking and eating vegan food. It’s not just delicious, it’s a spiritual practice that connects me with other people, animals, and the earth itself. Who knows, you might enjoy it too!

On another note, here is an unabashed reminder that the Bible talks quite a bit about gluttony, even as it relates to craving meat. You might recall manna falling from heaven to feed the Hebrews who fled from slavery, but Numbers 11 does not get enough attention. Here, Moses is so fed up with the people demanding meat that he tells God he would rather die than deal with them.

God instructs Moses to tell them, “God has heard your whining and he’s going to give you meat. You’re going to eat meat. And it’s not just for a day that you’ll eat meat, and not two days, or five or ten or twenty, but for a whole month. You’re going to eat meat until it’s coming out your nostrils. You’re going to be so sick of meat that you’ll throw up at the mere mention of it.” This does not seem like a great omen, but apparently, the people were pretty dead-set on getting their fix. Before they knew it, “A wind set in motion by God swept quails in from the sea. They piled up to a depth of about three feet in the camp and as far out as a day’s walk in every direction. All that day and night and into the next day the people were out gathering the quail—huge amounts of quail; even the slowest person among them gathered at least sixty bushels.”19

If you are still thinking, wow, what a great story, I, too, could go for some poultry, you might want to take a beat. The passage concludes, saying, “But while they were still chewing the quail and had hardly swallowed the first bites, God’s anger blazed out against the people. He hit them with a terrible plague. They ended up calling the place Kibroth Hattaavah (Graves-of-the-Craving). There they buried the people who craved meat.”

So with that, I wish you a Happy Veganuary!

Karl Barth Thinks You Should Be Vegan

Eschatological Ethics in a Meat-Eater’s World

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