The Defeat of Satan: Karl Barth's Three Agent Account of Salvation by Declan Kelly (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Defeat of Satan: Karl Barth's Three Agent Account of Salvation by Declan Kelly Dr Patrick Mitchel (bio) Declan Kelly, The Defeat of Satan: Karl Barth's Three Agent Account of Salvation (London: T&T Clark, 2022), 162 pages. The Defeat of Satan is a fine third addition to T&T Clark's Explorations in Reformed Theology series. In it Declan Kelly, a PhD graduate from the University of Aberdeen who hails from Galway, guides the reader through the daunting landscape of Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics with the assurance of someone familiar with the complex topography of the Swiss theologian's thought. Kelly's destination is a place less visited within Barthian studies, namely the apocalyptic conflict evident within Barth's doctrine of salvation as a 'three-agent' cosmological drama between God, humanity and Satan and all his works. As such, Kelly's book makes a distinctive contribution to the wider 'apocalyptic turn' within Pauline studies and systematic theology. Advocates of apocalyptic tend to utilise a hermeneutic stressing the idea of a surprising and disruptive divine revelation (apokalypsis) that shatters previous frameworks. It is invasive work of God alone that advances his redemptive purposes in the world and enables God's people to see things as they 'really are' behind the scenes of everyday life. Resonances to Karl Barth and his dogged insistence on the once and for all revelation of God in Jesus Christ are immediately apparent and so it is understandable why Barth is often credited as a key influence in the rise of apocalyptic theology. Building on the explosive original contributions of Johannes Weiss (1892) and Albert Sweitzer (1910) and in light of Barth, a loose coalition of scholars like Ernst Käsemann, J. Christiaan Beker, J. Louis Martyn, Beverly Gaventa, Martinus de Boer, Susan Eastmann, Philip Ziegler, and Douglas Campbell have since articulated apocalyptic perspectives of Paul and wider New Testament thought. From an apocalyptic perspective, the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus are climactic events in a cosmic war between God and all the forces that oppose him. One achievement of this apocalyptic viewpoint has been to take seriously the multilayered scope of the New Testament's eschatological language concerning themes like the Devil, powers and principalities, rulers and authorities, 'elemental spirits', flesh and Spirit, the Day of the Lord, sin and death as destructive powers within this 'present evil age' (Gal 1:4), Christ's Parousia, divine wrath and judgment, and the final victory of God over all his enemies resulting in a [End Page 403] liberated creation. Kelly then is in a sense going 'back' to Barth himself to explore in depth the shape and content of his apocalyptic theology. He does so both with, and at times against, Barth, but his overall attitude is deeply appreciative of Barth as too good a biblical scholar not to take apocalyptic seriously. It is worth noting that both Ziegler and Gaventa have supportive comments on the back of Kelly's book. What follows can only be a sketch of Kelly's argument. Based on a PhD thesis, the tone is scholarly and footnotes plentiful so attentive reading is required. This task is made easier by Kelly's elegant prose and clarity of thought. His aim is to show that Church Dogmatics contains Barth's 'report' (Bericht) on the reality of Satan within divine revelation, a report that is woven into his doctrines of election, creation and reconciliation. That report, in light of his doctrine of election in CD II/2, takes the form of a three-agent doctrine of salvation. In the Christ-event the lordship of Satan in the cosmos is broken. This is no marginal strand in Barth's thought but is integral to his soteriology. Kelly deals persuasively with various potential objections to his proposal. These include that there is, effectively, no Devil in Barth's theology. That Barth's soteriology is overwhelmingly forensic (think of a legal setting of a judge announcing pardon) leaving little or no room for apocalyptic and cosmological themes. Or, where a three-agent framework is acknowledged, it is still tied back to, and effectively subsumed within, a forensic soteriology (e...