Eschatological Presence in Karl Barth's G¨ottingen Theology - Hardcover

Christopher Asprey's stellar book is one of the first to plumb the depths of the Gottingen lectures, a key link in the chain of Barth's thologicl development. (Steven Edmund Demmler Jr. Theology)

This is a very fine discussion Barth's deployment of eschatological grace. It is fully up to date with the critical literature both German and Anglo-Saxon, and freed from the garb of grey academic dress stylistically. (Timothy Bradshaw, The Journal of Theological Studies)

Aprey does his work in the right way - in close conversation with the very best Barth scholars on both sides of the Atlantic. Hopefully, his book will be given a very wide reading. (Bruce McCormack, Journal of SJT)

This is the best kind of research. It concerns itself with a discrete body of literature; it proceeds by a close reading of those texts; its writing is clear; and its judgments are sensible. (Timothy Baylor, Themelios)

The posthumous publication of previously unavailable academic lectures by Karl Barth allows unprecedented access to the crucial formative years between the production of his two major masterpieces, the Commentary on Romans and the Church Dogmatics. Barth was professor at the University of Göttingen (1921-1926). It was here that he was to formulate many of the ideas that would later be developed or altered in the Church Dogmatics. Providing insightful comparisons and contrast with some of Barth's major contemporaries, Christopher Asprey draws widely on the lecture courses, as well as on other better known texts from the period, to give a comprehensive account of Barth's theology in these years.

Unterricht in der christlichen Religion (Göttingen Dogmatics), the only full dogmatics cycle Barth completed during his lifetime, provides a key focus for Asprey's study. A picture emerges of Barth's concerns during this period that is different from many other established accounts: rather than being 'occasionalist' or dualist, Barth's theology in the 1920s was characterised by an orientation towards the eschatological encounter between God and humankind. Barth's intention in the Göttingen Dogmatics was to introduce his students to their responsibility before the Word of God, all other theological topics then flowing towards or from the 'dialogical' moment of encounter between this Word and human beings.

This reading is borne out by in-depth analyses of some of the major themes in the dogmatics: revelation, incarnation, resurrection, pneumatology, moral and sacramental theology. While Barth's focus on the eschatological presence of God explains the freshness and immediacy of his writing in the 1920s, it is also shown at a number of points how this perspective generates various dilemmas in his theology, which remain unresolved during this period.