Barth and Dostoevsky : a study of the influence of the Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky on the development of the Swiss theologian Karl Barth, 1915-1922 / P.H. Brazier.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Brazier, Paul.

Series:

Paternoster theological monographs

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Barth, Karl, 1886-1968.

Barth, Karl.

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881--Influence.

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor.

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881.

Physical Description:

xix, 245 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Milton Keynes ; Colorado Springs, CO : Paternoster, 2007.

Summary:

A work of historic and systematic theology, Barth and Dostoevsky examines the influence of the Russian writer and prophet Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky on the Swiss theologian Karl Barth. This is a study that demonstrates that the writings of Dostoevsky - initially Crime and Punishment in the summer of 1915, but later The Brothers Karamazov, amongst other works - effected the development of the theology of Karl Barth. This was an influence mediated by his friend and colleague Eduard Thurneysen and was in the form of a key element of Barth's thought: his understanding of sin and grace (an understanding that mirrors that of the Reformers but comes, as Barth explained, initially from Dostoevsky). Therefore this study explicates, first, the reading of Dostoevsky by Barth, 1915-16, and the influence on his understanding of sin and grace; second, a study of Eduard Thurneysen in so far as his life and work complements and influences Barth; third, Barth's illustrative use of Dostoevsky, around 1918-21, the period of the rewriting of his seminal commentary on Romans - 'the bombshell on the playground of the theologians', as Karl Adam put it.

Contents:

Barth on Dostoevsky 1

Why No Dostoevsky? 2

Aims and Objectives 2

Romans 3

Liberal and Atheist? 3

Part 1 Revolutionary Theology in the Making

Chapter 1 Wendung und Retraktation 7

Karl Barth and Eduard Thurneysen 7

Barth's Theological Development 8

Comrade Barth and War 10

Wendung und Retraktation 14

Hermann Kutter 16

Barth and Thurneysen's Theological Agenda: 'The Problem' 17

Chapter 2 The Apophatic Barth - God's Aseity 19

Kriegszeit und Gottesreich 19

Apophatic Language and Concepts 22

Dialectic and a Critique of Religion in the Service of the Gospel 25

Part 2 Karl Barth - Schuld und Suhne

Chapter 3 Sonya and Raskolnikov-a Dialectic of Sin and Grace 31

Crime and Punishment 31

Trespass and Reparation 32

Atheism 33

Dialectic in Dostoevsky's Doctrine of God 35

Dostoevsky - Judgement and Intellectual Sins 39

'The Idea' 40

Chapter 4 Die Gerechtigkeit Gottes 47

Wilfulness 47

eritis sicut deus - The Tower of Babel 47

Barth and The Tower of Babel 49

Dostoevsky and The Tower of Babel 53

Conscience and the Critical Realism of God 58

Conscience as Liberal Piety? 59

Graceful Sin - Sinful Grace 60

Luther and Calvin 62

Chapter 5 Barth on the Influence of Dostoevsky 65

Der romische Katholizismus als Frage an die protestantische Kirche (1928) 65

Barth and Rome 66

Sin, Grace and Dostoevsky 68

Grace, Forgiveness and Redemption - Christian Soteriology 71

Barth's Theological Education - Neo-Protestant Liberalism 73

Barth on the Influence of Dostoevsky 73

Von Balthasar's Understanding 76

Chapter 6 Barth and Thurneysen's Theological Agenda: 'The Solution' 79

Reading: Barth and Paul - Thurneysen and Dostoevsky 79

Dostoevsky and the Russian New Testament 81

Die neue Welt in der Bibel 84

The Early Influence of Dostoevsky on Barth: Interim Conclusion 86

Part 3 Thurneysen and Barth - Theology, Ministry and Pastoral Care

Chapter 7 Eduard Thurneysen 91

Eduard Thurneysen (1888-1974) 91

Works - Ministerial 94

Works - Theological 95

Chapter 8 Pastoral Theology 99

Die Lehre von der Seelsorge 99

Sin and the Human Condition before God 102

Chapter 9 Dostojewski 107

What is Humanity? 107

Dostoevsky's Men and Women 108

Dostoevsky's Perspective 110

Ivan Karamazov, The Grand Inquisitor, and the Devil 112

Knowledge of God 113

Summary of Thurneysen's Dostojewski 114

Chapter 10 Influences on Thurneysen and Barth's Understanding of Dostoevsky 117

Thurneysen and Barth's Understanding of Dostoevsky 117

Influences on Thurneysen: Herman Hesse 118

Influences on Thurneysen: Stefan Zweig, Karl Notzel Akim Lwowitsch Wolynski and Jeremias Gotthelf 119

Dostoevsky - 'this Russian' 122

Russian Orthodoxy and Eastern Platonism? 123

Chapter 11 Theological Existentialism 129

Religion as the Result of the Fall 130

Feuerbach and Dostoevsky 133

God-Humanity 136

Part 4 Dostoevsky and Romerbrief 2

Chapter 12 Barth and Der Romerbrief 141

Barth-Thurneysen: The Period of The Rewriting of Der Romerbrief 141

Correspondence 1919-1923 141

Romerbrief 1 (1916-18, Published 1919) 149

Romerbrief 2 (1920-21, Published 1922) 154

Der Christ in der Gesellschaft (1919) 155

Chapter 13 Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky 159

Influences on the Rewriting of Romerbrief 2 159

Kierkegaard or Dostoevsky 161

Infinite Qualitative Distinction 162

Dialectic and an Interpretation of the New Testament 164

A Criticism of Religion in the Service of the Gospel 166

The Nature of the Influence of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky 168

Chapter 14 Dostoevsky and Romerbrief 2 171

The Nature of the Evidence 171

The Content and Spread of the References to Dostoevsky and Others in Romerbrief 2: Sources Secular and Ecclesial 171

Gottingen - a Reformed position 178

Chapter 15 Theological Anthropology 181

Theological Anthropology: The Human Condition and the Nature of the Relationship of Sin and Grace between Humanity and God 181

Theological Anthropology in Romerbrief 2 181

The Human Condition before God 182

Chapter 16 A Criticism of Church-Religion 187

A Criticism of Church-Religion: The Grand Inquisitor, Roman Catholicism, Socialism and Atheism 187

The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov and The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor 188

The Influence of Ivan Karamazov on Barth and Thurneysen 189

Hebrew Religion and the Church seen as Synonymous 192

Dialectic of Faith-Religion and Theism-Atheism 193

Criticism of the Pseudo-Religious Archetype of a Socialist-Communist Revolutionary 195

Chapter 17 The Paradox of Christlikeness 197

The Paradox of Christlikeness: The Parables of Jesus and the Characters of Dostoevsky 197

Myshkin and Alyosha - Christlike Archetypes 199

The Marginalizing of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky 203

Influence or Illustration? 203

An Understanding/Doctrine of Sin and Grace? 204

Conclusion - Barth and Dostoevsky 207

1 Karl Barth: Works 210

2 Eduard Thurneysen: Works 217

3 Karl Barth and Eduard Thurneysen: Joint Works 222

4 Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky: Works 223

5 General Sources 229.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [209]-231) and index.

ISBN:

1842275631

9781842275634

OCLC:

228671343