Kierkegaard, Faith, and Theologies "After Method"
Book Notes #2 from Hank Spaulding
Hello, everyone! Welcome back to Book Notes for the God Here & Now online magazine. For this month's Book Notes, we have a great collection of texts recently written on Karl Barth's theology. They vary in content and style, but they nonetheless represent exciting developments in Barth studies. This edition will be of particular interest to those unfamiliar with the recently published works on Barth and those interested in some new directions for Barth studies.
Alan J. Torrance and Andrew B. Torrance, Beyond Immanence: The Theological Vision of Kierkegaard and Barth (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2023), xi–393. (Hardcover)
Our first text is Beyond Immanence: The Theological Vision of Kierkegaard and Barth by Alan J. Torrance and Andrew B. Torrance. Close readers of Barth will already know of the Swiss theologian’s dependence on the Danish philosopher. Some readers assume that Barth, after the publication of the second edition of the Römerbrief, became increasingly critical of the Dane philosopher and less reliant upon him. Beyond Immanence challenges that assumption and argues that Barth depends more on Kierkegaard than thought previously. The father/son author team brings together the best of systematic theology to show how Barth and Kierkegaard share essential theological sympathies, not only in the reality of God's infinite qualitative difference but also in God's radical nearness. In addition, the Torrances read Barth and Kierkegaard in their political context and illustrate that both figures worked to prevent their Christology from lapsing into sheer political usefulness for various ideological movements. In short, Barth and Kierkegaard resist the temptation to assimilate God into any structure of immanence to maintain God’s transcendence against such movements and, paradoxically, to articulate just how God can be with us in the incarnation. This work will be of special interest to those interested in either thinker but also public theologians, ethicists, and pastors needing guidance for presenting the reality of God in a politically polarized world.
Hanna Reichel, After Method: Queer Grace, Conceptual Design, and the Possibility of Theology (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox. 2023), vii–277. (Paperback)
Our second text is a very important work not only in Barth studies but for the broader discipline of theology. As After Method challenges the possibility of doing theology in a “correct” way to move readers beyond the search for an infallible method, Reichel writes this text in conversation with the theology of Karl Barth without feeling the need only to repeat his particular theological method. Rather, in constructive dialogue with Marcella Althaus-Reid, Reichel challenges any methodological program that claims redemptive potential. The argument, in short, strongly asserts that one's method cannot save. However, Reichel insists that method and theology can still be better. Reichel, then, provides their constructive reading of theological method. In light of architectural design, Reichel scaffolds a responsibly ordered theology that tethers theology to the concrete realities of people and truth on the ground. By illustrating the failure of method, Reichel provides a liberation of theology that redirects it to those normally excluded from traditionally deployed theological methods. Only through this new method-practice can individuals develop and articulate more just theologies that are faithful to the reality of God. After Method is a book for those interested in how Barth’s theological method opens up new pathways for theology while not remaining strictly wed to Barth’s theological trajectory.
Brandon Watson, Karl Barth on Faith: A Systematic Exploration (Berlin: De Gruyter. 2024), v–240. (Hardcover)
Our final text engages the work of Karl Barth with regard to explorations of faith. In Karl Barth on Faith, Brandon Watson provides a systematic account of the role of faith in Barth’s theology. Specifically, Watson asks a crucial question: how can faith be understood as ontologically proper to the trinitarian becoming of God? To answer this question, Watson grounds faith in God's becoming. To perform this grounding, Watson critically explores Barth's understanding of faith. This engagement is nothing other than a tour de force in explicating Barth's theology. The book explores the threefold movement of revelation where God is the subject (Glaubender), predicate (Glaube), and object (Geglaubte) of faith. The goal of this exploration locates faith ontologically in the election of Jesus Christ and brings a neglected concept of recognition (Anerkennung) into conversation with the doctrine of election. This conversation sets the possibility for human faith and a systematic account of the becoming of faith in humanity. Karl Barth on Faith is a gift to the academy and the Church offering a deeply rigorous account of faith and challenging in every respect.
This concludes our monthly Book Notes. Look for reviews on all three texts coming to the Center for Barth Studies review page soon. If you have ideas for Book Notes topics, please get in touch with me at barth.center@ptsem.edu. — Hank Spaulding, PhD
