Photo copyright of the Karl Barth-Archiv in Basel, Switzerland

I have read pertinent volumes of Barth’s Church Dogmatics through the years, but as of late I’ve decided to plow through the whole thing; and so I am. But something continues to bother my conscience as I read ole’ Uncle Karl. You know what I am referring to, the thing that got me into hot water about a year and a half ago; the Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum affair. As I am reading Barth’s CD it actually causes me some serious dissonance. Knowing that he was living with CVK in his shared house, with wife and kids present, it utterly blows my mind that he still had the wherewithal to produce what he did, theologically, in his Dogmatics. I mean have you read it? It is mind-blowing. I mean it is mind blowing in light of this sinful unrepentant relationship he lived in all the days of his life. Have you read his CD? It is chalked full with clarity and insight vis-à-vis the evangelical reality of Christ’s life. He talks deeply about sin, repentance, and the need for living a mortified life before God; particularly because of our ongoing sinfulness. He refers to the blindness caused by the idolatry making of religions, and the constant need for repentance in order for us to see God in His fullness in Self-revelation in Christ.

This is what causes me some serious dissonance. It is reported that CVK herself was so intimately involved with the production of the CD that she may well have written large sections of it herself; if not that, her thoughts at least are intricately interwoven throughout its symphonic presentation. So, it isn’t just Karl it is Charlotte; both of them living in unrepentant sin, and yet able to produce what they did in the Church Dogmatics. The CD, in light of this, seems like the ultimate expression of God’s Grace shone brightly over Barth and Kirschbaum. This is the only explanation I can arrive at. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not implying that what they produced is inspired by God, per se. What I am saying is that it seems that what they in fact did produce so reflects the wondrous truths of who God is in Christ, that its gravitas cannot be denied. What I am saying is that in spite of their sinful interloping, in a life-styled fashion, they were able to write something that bears witness to the earth-shattering miraculous reality of the Gospel itself. Indeed, it is as if God was like: Okay, Barth and Kirschbaum, I’m going to use you anyway, in spite of your disobedience before me; that ‘I’ will let what you are attempting to refer to, ‘Me’, to shine throw in spite of your decision to live in a way that is unpleasing to Me. I don’t really know what else to conclude.

I will say, that at points, as I’m reading the CD, I feel some conviction about this; and this is why the dissonance. It is somewhat distracting for me. But at the same moment, there is clarity about the centrality of Christ in Barth’s theologizing that is not present in anyone else’s theology throughout the millennia of Church History; not in the intensive way he worked. So, I guess I’ll continue to read Barth, but only because of who He is witnessing to; and how he somehow is able to do that, even while living in an unrepentant lifestyle. Do we wall sin? Yes. Do we intentionally and self-consciously live in adultery while maintaining ministerial positions in the Church? According to Scripture we shouldn’t be. And in the evangelical world I live in you wouldn’t be allowed to; that’s because of Scripture and its reality in Christ.