Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Theologians for a Post-Christian World

by Wolf Krötke

Publisher:

Baker Academic

, 2019

Overview

Wolf Krötke, acclaimed as a foremost interpreter of the theologies of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, demonstrates the continuing significance of these two theologians for Christian faith and life. This book enables readers to look with fresh eyes at the theologies of Barth and Bonhoeffer and offers new insights for reading the history of modern theology. It also helps churches see how they can be creative minorities in societies that have forgotten God.

Translated by a senior American scholar of Christian theology and an accomplished translator, this is the first major translation of Krötke’s work in the English language. The book is necessary reading for those studying Barth, Bonhoeffer, and other developments in modern German dogmatics.

Key Features

• Demonstrates the continuing significance of these two theologians
• Enables readers to look with fresh eyes at the theologies of Barth and Bonhoeffer
• Presents the first major translation of Krötke’s work in the English language

Contents

Part 1: Karl Barth

• Karl Barth as Theological Conversation Partner: Personal Experiences between East and West, and the Challenges of Barth’s Theology
• Karl Barth: Humanity and Religion
• God and Humans as Partners: On the Significance of a Central Category in Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics
• Barth’s Christology as Exemplary Exegesis
• “The Sum of the Gospel”: Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Election in the Church Dogmatics
• “Man as Soul of His Body”: Notes on the Anthropological Foundations of Pastoral Care in Karl Barth's Theology
• Theology and Resistance in Karl Barth’s Thinking: A Systematic-Theological Account
• The Church as “Provisional Representation” of the Whole World Reconciled in Christ: The Foundations of Karl Barth’s Ecclesiology

Part 2: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

• The Meaning of God’s Mystery for Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Understanding of the Religions and “Religionlessness”
• “Sharing in God’s Suffering”: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Understanding of a "Religionless Christianity"
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Understanding of God
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Exegesis of the Psalm
• “God’s Hand and Guidance”: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Language for God in a Time of Resistance
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Understanding of His Resistance: The Risk of Freedom and Guilt
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Understanding of the State: Theological Grounds, Practical Consequences, and Interpretation in East and West
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s "Nonreligious Interpretation of Biblical Concepts" and the Current Missionary Challenge of the Church

Praise for the Print Edition

Wolf Krötke ranks among the most insightful interpreters of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His life in East Germany provided him with a unique vantage point both before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. This collection of essays, wonderfully translated and edited by John Burgess, spans the entirety of Krötke’s career. It provides English-speaking scholars, students, and pastors the opportunity to encounter the best insights of a master theologian whose voice is much needed today.

—Keith L. Johnson, associate professor of theology, Wheaton College

These essays are a great gift! Wolf Krötke, one of Germany’s leading ‘post-Barthian’ theologians, began his career during the Cold War as a citizen of East Germany who found resources for his theological existence (and resistance) in the writings of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I have known him to be a scholar of great erudition who carries in himself both moral gravity and a delightful sense of humor. These essays sparkle with insight. They also remind us of what Christian dogmatics once was—and what it can be again--when done at a high level. John Burgess is to be thanked for his fine translation.

—Bruce L. McCormack, Charles Hodge Professor of Systematic Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary

Wolf Krötke is an extraordinarily clear, wise, and profoundly insightful voice in the world of Barth and Bonhoeffer studies. These remarkable pieces warrant scrupulous study by all those concerned not only with Barth’s and Bonhoeffer’s witness but also with the ways of the God of the gospel in this world.

—Christopher R. J. Holmes, associate professor of systematic theology and head of the Theology Programme, University of Otago

Product Details

• Title: Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Theologians for a Post-Christian World
• Author: Wolf Krötke
• Translator: John P. Burgess
• Publisher: Baker
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 272
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Topic: Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer

About Wolf Krötke

Wolf Krötke (PhD, University of Tübingen), widely regarded as a towering figure among late twentieth-century German theologians, is professor emeritus of systematic theology at Humboldt University in Berlin. He studied under Eberhard Jüngel and has written more than a dozen books. His groundbreaking work on the theme of sin and nothingness in Barth’s theology was formally recognized as a doctoral dissertation in 1990 after the end of communism. Krötke received the Karl Barth Prize in 1990.