Karl Barth's Anti-Ideological Theology: A Reconsideration of Barth's Approach to Philosophy

Abstract

Barth's approach to borrowing from philosophical figures and schools is underwritten by several convictions that made such an approach intelligible. These convictions entailed that (1) Barth had no firm commitment to a philosophical school; (2) Barth's use of philosophy and philosophical terminology displays a pragmatic though principled character; and (3) Barth resisted any grand philosophical systems and rejected not only any form of philosophical hegemony but ideology of any kind. This essay makes a cumulative argument in three corresponding parts. First, against the common supposition that philosophy (and specifically Kant's philosophy) had a programmatic importance for Barth's theology, the actual evidence demonstrates an ever-weakening influence after the second Römerbrief. Second, in view of this examination, the mature convictions of Barth's relation to philosophy can be discerned, and when these are articulated, the overarching consistency of Barth's understanding of the relation between theology and philosophy becomes apparent. This understanding of theology's relation to philosophy is more theologically grounded and stable than is often maintained, and one predicated on a principled position regarding philosophy rather than a simple eclecticism of its use. And third and finally, Barth's principled stance evident in his relation to philosophy will be shown to be the basic mature stance he maintained in relation to all systems of thought – political and economic, and not only philosophical. When this is understood, Barth's theology is displayed as strongly anti-ideological in character.