Election and the Trinity: Twenty‐five Theses on the Theology of Karl Barth

Abstract

How the Holy Trinity and election are related has become a hot topic in Barth studies. On the one hand are the "traditionalists" (for lack of a better term), who contend that throughout the Church Dogmatics Karl Barth never changed his mind that the triune life of God was prior to the divine decision of election. On the other hand is a growing tribe of "revisionists" who maintain that for the later Barth the situation was much the reverse in that God's pre-temporal decision of election actually gave rise to the Trinity. 1 The later Barth came to see the Trinity as resulting from election, according to the "revisionists;" whereas the "traditionalists" argue that for Barth the Trinity remained what it had always been, namely, election's essential presupposition and ground. 2 At stake are not only some of Barth's most difficult dialectical moves, but also some of the most fundamental questions in contemporary theology. How time is related to eternity, for example, is a perennial topic that continues to divide Anselmians, Thomists and other traditionalists from Hegelians, process theologians and demythologizing existentialists. It is also a topic on which Barth's complex reflections are unique. A closely related matter-how

The obedience of the Son in the theology of Karl Barth and of Thomas F. Torrance

“…He was the election of God's grace as directed towards man' (CD, II/2, p. 102). 22 Barth's goal here is the same as Torrance's, as when Torrance consistently maintains that there is no God behind the back of Jesus. 23 Both theologians wanted to affirm that Christ's obedience, subordination and lowliness for us were acts of God himself (CD, IV/1, pp.…”