Barth’s Ceaseless Attempts at Unphilosophizing Schleiermacher’s Philosophized Soteriology (2015...

1Jae-Eun Park

(Ph.D. cand. Calvin Theological Seminary)

2015 MASAL Presentation

Barth’s Ceaseless Attempts at Unphilosophizing Schleiermacher’s Philosophized Soteriology

Ph.D. cand., Cavin Theological Seminary

Barth’s Ceaseless Attempts at

Unphilosophizing Schleiermacher’s

Philosophized Soteriology

Jae-Eun Park

F. D. E. Schleiermacher

1768-1834

German theologian

philosopher

“Father of Modern

Liberal Theology”

Über die Religion (1799)

Der christliche Glaube

(1821)

Karl Barth

1886-1968

Swiss theologian

“Father of

Neo-orthodoxy”

Kirchliche Dogmatik

(13 vols., 1932-1967)

Der Römerbrief (1919)

Literature Review

4

Comparative Study

Doctrine of Election

Christology

Soteriology

Soteriology

5

Philosophized

Soteriology

Unphilosophized

Soteriology

How Can We Be Saved? #1

6

By Sense and Taste

for the INFINITE

Neoplatonic-panentheistic

Language

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Neoplatonism

ONE

Universal

Soul

World

Matter

Emanation

Emanation

Emanation

Absolute Reality

Noetic/ Psychic

Reality

Physical Reality

8

Schleiermacher’s Note

“The Deity . . . has compelled Himself to

divide His great work even to infinity.” (Schleiermacher, On Religion, 3)

“the Highest “was so equally distributed

[itself] among the great body of mankind.”(Schleiermacher, On Religion, 251)

Panentheism

GOD

UNIVERSE

GOD

UNIVERSE

Distinct

Distinct

10


“I leave you to say whether the World can be conceived as a true All and Whole without God.”

(Schleiermacher, “Explanations of the Second Speech,” On Religion, 103)


11

By the coincidence

of opposites

(coincidentia

oppositorum)

Neoplatonic-panentheistic

Language12

coincidentia oppositorum

All in One

&

One in All

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13


“Each of His eternal thoughts can only be

actualized in two hostile yet twin forms,

one of which cannot exist except by means of the other. The whole corporeal world . . .

appears . . . simply a never-ending play of

opposing forces.”(Schleiermacher, On Religion, 3-4)


14

By “feeling of

absolute

dependence”

Romantic Rhetoric

Romanticism

Enlightenment Romanticism

ReactionRational Thought

Instrumental

Reason

Independent

Reason

Criticism

Emotion

Feeling

Intuition

Sensation

16


This recognition can be achieved, neither by

knowing, nor by doing, but by “immediate

consciousness” or “intuitive feeling” as mutually conjoining the two notions, Anschauung (intuition) and Gefühl (feeling)

(Schleiermacher, On Religion, 44)


17

Through

participating in

Christ’s perfect

God-consciousness

Subjectivistic, but

Christocentric rhetoric

Imperfect vs. Perfect

18

Imperfect

God-consciousness

Human BeingJesus Christ

perfect

God-consciousness

Participating

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19

Philosophized Soteriology

Subjectivist-

Christocentric-

Neoplatonic-

Romantic-

Soteriology

20

Barth’s Task

“Removing”

any kinds of

subjective

philosophical

tenets

21

Barth’s Writings on Schleiermacher

22

Barth’s Evaluation on Schleiermacher

Schleiermacher is not only “the Church-father of the Nineteenth

Century,” but also the alpha and omegaof the “achievements of the German

spirit in 1750-1830.”

(Barth, Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century, 411)

23

Barth’s Evaluation on Schleiermacher

Schleiermacher is

a “heresy of gigantic proportions,”

specifically, for his philosophical-theological method.

(Barth, The Theology of Schleiermacher,104)

24

Barth & Philosophy #1

“there never has actually been a

philosophia christiana, for if it wasphilosophia it was not christiana, and if it was christiana it was notphilosophia.”

(Barth, Church Dogmatics, I.1, 6)

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25

“true knowledge of salvation is not gained

by empty speculations.”

(Barth, Church Dogmatics,I.1, 6)

Barth & Philosophy #2

26


Objectively

(not subjectively)

“in Christ by Christ”

Immanuel

Theological rhetoric

27

Barth’s Note

“the individual’s salvation is “already

included in the true objective, and will

be found in it and not elsewhere.”

(Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV.1, 87)

28

Barth’s Strategy

AgainstSubjective Romantic Rhetoric

Existential Subjective Experience

Anthropologizing Theology

Psychological Theology

29


JESUS

the elected man

the rejected man

30

Barth’s Note

“Jesus is not merely one of the elect but the elect of God . . . There is no condemnation—literally none—for those that are in Christ Jesus. Man is not rejected. [But] He [Christ] is rejected in order that we might not be rejected.”

(Barth, Church Dogmatics, II.2, 116, 166-168)

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31

Who is God? “transcendental”

GOD

UNIVERSE

Schleiermacher Barth

GOD(Wholly Other)

UNIVERSE

Qualitative Difference

32

Barth’s Note

“God stands at an infinite distance from everything else, not in the finite degree of difference with which created things stand towards each other.”

(Barth, Church Dogmatics, II.1, 311)

33

Barth’s Epistemology

?the finitum non capax infiniti dictum

(the finite is unable to grasp the infinite)

34

Unphilosophized Soteriology

Overemphasized-

Christocentric-

Objective-

Soteriology

35

Comparison #1


Soteriology Philosophized

Soteriology

Unphilosophized

Soteriology

Philosophy

-Neoplatonism

-Panentheism

-Romanticism

Existentialism

Way to be saved -taste and sense

the Infinite

-participating

Christ’s perfect

God-

consciousness

-objectively been

accomplished

in Christ by Christ

36

Comparison #2


Salvation Coincidentia

oppsitorum

Imanuel

Characteristic Subjective Objective

Christ

Perfect

Romantic

Model

the elected

&

the rejected man

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Transcendence

Immanence

vs

37

Methodological Difference

in Schleiermacher’s

theology, “continuity”

(immanence) between God

and man is much stressed,

in Barth’s theology,

“discontinuity”

(transcendence) is much

highlighted

Transcendence

Immanence

vs

38

Methodological Difference

in Schleiermacher’s theology,

“man discovers himself when he

discovers God; he discovers

something that is identified with

himself,” man in Barth’s

theology “meets a stranger

when he meets God . . . The

meeting is accidental . . .

Essentially they do not belong to

each other.

Overemphasized-

Christocentric-

Objective-

Soteriology

Subjectivist-

Christocentric-

Neoplatonic-

Romantic-

Soteriology

Schleiermacher vs. Barth

VS

Barth’s Ceaseless Attempts at Unphilosophizing Schleiermacher’s Philosophized Soteriology (2015...

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