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Barth's christological ecclesiology as theological resource for evangelical free church ecclesiology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2020

C. Ryan Fields
C. Ryan Fields*
Affiliation:
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This essay argues that Barth's christological ecclesiology is worthy of consideration as a resource to fund a more robust and distinctly theological evangelical free church ecclesiology. Specifically, Barth's articulation of the church as witness, combined with his emphases on the gathering, upbuilding and sending of the church, all resonate with a distinctly free church vantage point. Additionally, I argue that Barth's theological interpretation of Matthew 18:20 (a verse of great significance for the free church tradition) further reveals his compatibility with free church ecclesiology. I conclude that while the traditional problems associated with evangelical reception of Barth need to be addressed and his doctrine of the church as grounded in Christ (and thus election) critically assessed, Barth does end up offering a resource that can inform the development of a theologically robust evangelical free church ecclesiology.

Keywords

Karl BarthChurch Dogmaticsecclesiologyevangelicalfree churchMatthew 18:20
Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , February 2020 , pp. 13 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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References

1 Stackhouse, John G. Jr, ‘Preface’, in Stackhouse, John G. (ed.), Evangelical Ecclesiology: Reality or Illusion? (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), pp. 9–10Google Scholar.

2 Kevin Vanhoozer and Daniel Treier are among the clearest of these voices, noting convincingly that ecclesiology continues to be neglected within evangelical theology, so much so that it can be described as ‘that infamous evangelical weakness’. See Vanhoozer, Kevin J. and Treier, Daniel J., Theology and the Mirror of Scripture: A Mere Evangelical Account, Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015), pp. 13–14Google Scholar.

3 Roger Olson, ‘Free Church Ecclesiology and Evangelical Spirituality’, in Stackhouse, Evangelical Ecclesiology, p. 164.

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5 Kantzer, Kenneth S, ‘Thank God for Karl Barth, But’, Christianity Today 30/14 (3 Oct. 1986), p. 14Google Scholar.

6 For more on evangelical reception of Barth, see Vanhoozer, Kevin, ‘A Person of the Book: Barth on Biblical Authority and Interpretation’, in Chung, Sung Wook (ed.), Karl Barth and Evangelical Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006), pp. 26–44Google Scholar.

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9 See Vanhoozer and Treier, Theology and the Mirror of Scripture, pp. 10–11.

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11 Freeman, Curtis, ‘Where Two or Three are Gathered: Communion Ecclesiology in the Free Church’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 31/3 (Fall 2004), p. 259Google Scholar.

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13 Timothy George, ‘Running Like a Herald to Deliver the Message: Barth on the Church and Sacraments’, in Chung, Barth and Evangelical Theology, p. 193.

14 Ibid., p. 204.

15 Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics [hereafter CD], 13 vols, ed. T. F. Torrance and G. W. Bromiley (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1956–1974), II/2, p. 149.

16 Hütter, Reinhard, Bound to be Free: Evangelical Catholic Engagements in Ecclesiology, Ethics, and Ecumenism (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2004), p. 86Google Scholar.

17 George, ‘Running Like a Herald’, p. 204.

18 Avery Dulles labels Barth as the premier representative of the model of church as herald. See Dulles, Avery, Models of the Church (New York: Image Books, 1987), pp. 76–88Google Scholar.

19 Carter, Craig A., ‘Karl Barth's Revision of Protestant Ecclesiology’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 22/1 (1995), p. 44Google Scholar.

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21 Barth, CD IV/3.2, p. 681.

22 Ibid., p. 761.

23 Barth, CD IV/1, p. 643.

24 Bender, Kimlyn J., Karl Barth's Christological Ecclesiology (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), p. 162Google Scholar.

25 CD IV/1, p. 661.

26 Quoted in Buckley, James J., ‘Community, Baptism, and Lord's Supper’, in Webster, John (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Karl Barth (Cambridge: CUP, 2000), p. 200Google Scholar.

27 Personal conversation with Kevin Vanhoozer, fall 2017.

28 CD IV/1, pp. 656–7.

29 Ibid., p. 769.

30 Ibid., p. 653.

31 Ibid., p. 652.

32 Personal conversation with Kevin Vanhoozer, fall 2017.

33 Hütter, Bound to be Free, p. 88.

34 CD IV/2, p. 614.

35 Ibid.

36 Bender, Karl Barth's Christological Ecclesiology, p. 221.

37 Barth, CD IV/2, pp. 656–7.

38 Ibid., p. 658.

39 Ibid., p. 676.

40 Ibid., p. 678.

41 Ibid., pp. 698–9.

42 Ibid., pp. 699–706.

43 Bender, Karl Barth's Christological Ecclesiology, p. 215.

44 Personal conversation with Kevin Vanhoozer, fall 2017. I am heavily indebted to Vanhoozer for the summary of Barth's understanding of the sacraments that follows.

45 Ibid.

46 ‘Baptism is a sacrament of truth and holiness; and it is a sacrament, because it is the sign which directs us to God's revelation of eternal life. … It does not merely signify eternal reality, but is eternal reality … Baptism mediates the new creation … [as] a means of grace.’ Barth, Epistle to the Romans, p. 192.

47 Here see Nico den Bok, ‘Barth on Baptism: Concerning a Crucial Dimension of Ecclesiology’, Zeitschrift Für Dialektische Theologie. Supplement Series 5 (2011), p. 137.

48 Cross, Anthony, ‘Baptism in the Theology of John Calvin and Karl Barth’, in MacDonald, Neil B. and Trueman, Carl R. (eds), Calvin, Barth and Reformed Theology (Milton Keynes: Paternoster Press, 2008), p. 79Google Scholar.

49 Barth, CD IV/4, pp. 183–4, 186.

50 Personal conversation with Kevin Vanhoozer, fall 2017. For more on Barth's understanding of the humanity of Jesus as ‘the first sacrament’ see CD II/1, pp. 53–4.

51 Barth, CD IV/4, p. 102.

52 Ibid., p. 2.

53 Ibid.

54 Personal conversation with Kevin Vanhoozer, fall 2017.

55 Barth, CD IV/4, p. 32.

56 Thus Barth can say of this tandem: ‘Without this unity of the two in their distinction there could be no Christian ethics.’ CD IV/4, p. 41.

57 Barth, CD IV/3.2, pp. 517–18.

58 Cited in Webster, John, Barth's Ethics of Reconciliation (Cambridge: CUP, 1995), p. 166Google Scholar.

59 Barth, Karl, Letters, 1961–1968 (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1981), p. 96Google Scholar.

60 Barth, CD IV/3.2, p. 901.

61 For a compelling critique of Barth's doctrine of scripture toward the end of reconciliation with evangelical theology, see Vanhoozer, ‘A Person of the Book’; and Thompson's, Mark D. ‘Witness to the Word: on Barth's Doctrine of Scripture’, in Gibson, David and Strange, Daniel (eds), Engaging with Barth: Contemporary Evangelical Critiques (Nottingham: Apollos, 2008)Google Scholar.

62 See David Gibson, ‘The Day of God's Mercy: Romans 9–11 in Barth's Doctrine of Election’, in Gibson and Strange, Engaging with Barth, pp. 136–68; and Michael Horton, ‘A Stony Jar: The Legacy of Karl Barth for Evangelical Theology’, ibid., pp. 346–81.

63 See Michael Horton's ‘Covenant, Election, and Incarnation: Evaluating Barth's Actualist Christology’, in McCormack and Anderson, Barth and American Evangelicalism, pp. 112–47; and relatedly, Henri Blocher's ‘Karl Barth's Christocentric Method’, in Gibson and Strange, Engaging with Barth, 21–54.

64 Yoder, John Howard, ‘Karl Barth: How his Mind Kept Changing’, in McKim, Donald K. (ed.), How Karl Barth Changed my Mind (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1986), p. 171Google Scholar.

65 Ibid., p. 169.

66 Ibid., pp. 169–70.

67 Stout, Tracey Mark, ‘Free and Faithful Witness: Karl Barth on Believers’ Baptism and the Church's Relation to the State’, Perspectives in Religious Studies 33/2 (2006), pp. 173–4Google Scholar.

68 Hunsinger, George, Disruptive Grace: Studies in the Theology of Karl Barth (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2000), p. 120Google Scholar.

69 George, ‘Running Like a Herald’, p. 207.

70 Barth, CD IV/1, pp. 672–3.

71 Ibid., p. 671.

72 Barth, CD IV/2, p. 706.

73 Ibid., p. 680.

74 Personal conversation with Kevin Vanhoozer, fall 2017.

75 Ibid.

76 Stout, Tracey Mark, A Fellowship of Baptism: Karl Barth's Ecclesiology in Light of his Understanding of Baptism (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2010), pp. 99Google Scholar, 102.

77 Barth, CD, IV/3.2, p. 681.

78 Barth, CD, IV/2, pp. 654, 699.

79 Stout, ‘Free and Faithful Witness’, pp. 180, 186.

80 George, ‘Running Like a Herald’, pp. 206–7.

81 Bender, Kimlyn J, ‘Karl Barth's Doctrine of the Church in Contemporary Anglo-American Ecclesiological Conversation’, Zeitschrift für Dialektische Theologie 21/1 (2005), p. 85Google Scholar.

82 The collection of essays in Gibson and Strange, Engaging with Barth, and Chung, Barth and Evangelical Theology, are exemplary in this regard.

83 The work of John Webster represents such a resource. Webster, believing that ‘dogmatics is the schematic and analytical presentation of the matter of the gospel’, is perhaps a more reliable guide for evangelical theology than Barth. His theological ecclesiology is similarly amenable to the free church tradition (though he was Anglican), following and yet building upon Barth in emphasising the church as witness, its peculiar visibility, etc. See Webster, John, ‘Biblical Reasoning’, Anglican Theological Review 90/4 (Fall 2008), p. 750Google Scholar.

84 Barth, Karl, Against the Stream: Shorter Post-War Writings, 1946–52 (New York: Philosophical Library, 1954), pp. 76–7Google Scholar.