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Barr on Barth and Natural Theology: A Plea for Hermeneutics in Historical Theology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2009

Anthony C. Thiselton
Affiliation:
University ParkDepartment of Theology Nottingham NG7 2RD

Abstract

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Type
Article Review
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1994

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References

1 Barr, James, Biblical Faith and Natural Theology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, xii + 244pp., £30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar ISBN 0–19–826205–1. The Gifford Lectures for 1991, delivered in the University of Edinburgh.

2 Brunner, E. and Barth, K., Natural Theology, Eng. London: Bles, 1946.Google Scholar

3 Paton, H. J., The Modern Predicament, London: Allen & Unwin, 1955, pp. 4758.Google Scholar

4 Barth, Karl, Anselm: fides quaerens intellectum. Anselm's Proof of the Existence of God in the Context of his Theological Scheme, Eng. London: S.C.M. 1960, p. 11.Google Scholar

5 Wigley, Stephen D., ‘Karl Barth on St Anselm: the Influence of St Anselm's “Theological Scheme” in T. F. Torrance and Eberhard Jüngel’ in S.J.T. 46, 1993, 7997Google Scholar, with which I find myself largely in agreement: cf. Watson, Gordon, ‘A Study in St Anselm's Soteriology and Karl Barth's Theological MethodS.J.T. 42, 1989, for a contrary view.Google Scholar

6 Torrance, T. F., Karl Barth: Biblical and Evangelical Theologian, Edinburgh: Clark, 1990 pp. 136159 esp. pp. 150–52Google Scholar, and Jüngel, Eberhard, Karl Barth – A Theological Legacy, Eng. Edinburgh: Clark, 1986, pp. 4143Google Scholar: Busch, Eberhard, Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts, Eng. London: S.C.M. 1976, pp. 205209.Google Scholar

7 Plantinga, Alvin, God, Freedom and Evil, New York: Harper & Row, 1974, rp. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977, pp. 85112Google Scholar, cf. also his The Nature of Necessity, Oxford: O.U.P. 1974, chapter 10Google Scholar; and Plantinga, A. (ed.) The Ontological Argument, New York: Doubleday, 1965.Google Scholar

8 Plantinga, Alvin and Wolterstorff, Nicholas (eds), Faith and Rationality, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983, pp. 7891.Google Scholar

9 Hartshorne, Charles, The Logic of Perfection, La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1962Google Scholar; and Malcolm, Norman, ‘Anselm's Ontological Arguments’ in Philosophical Review, 69, 1960CrossRefGoogle Scholar (also rp. in A. Plantinga's (ed.) The Ontological Argument. For a contrary (antitheistic) critique cf. Mackie, J. L., The Miracle of Theism. Arguments for and against the Existence, of God, Oxford: O.U.P. 1982, pp. 4163.Google Scholar The literature is vast, and includes notably contributions from John Hick and from Richard Swinburne.

10 Karl Barth, Anselm, p. 20.

11 Eberhard Busch, op. cit. p. 248.

12 Barth, Karl, Church Dogmatics I: 1, Eng. Edinburgh: Clark 2nd edn 1975, chapter 1 (section 3), p. 55 (my italics).Google Scholar

13 Ibid. section 4:4, p. 120 (my italics).

14 Barth, Karl, The Resurrection of the Dead, Eng. London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1933, p. 18.Google Scholar

15 Ibid. p. 115.

16 Barth, Karl, Church Dogmatics II: 1, Eng. Edinburgh: Clark, 1957, chapter 5 (section 26) p. 135.Google Scholar

17 Ibid (sect. 27), p. 179. That this theme is the proper context for a negative evaluation of ‘natural theology’ is further confirmed in Church Dogmatics II:1 (sect. 26), pp. 86–88, and 129–34.

18 Barth, Karl, Church Dogmatics II:2 (section 34), pp. 306 and 317.Google Scholar

19 Torrance, T. F., Karl Barth. An Introduction to his Early Theology 19101931, London: S.C.M. 1962, pp. 98105.Google Scholar

20 Pannenberg, W., ‘Man – the Image of God?’ in Faith and Reality, Eng. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1977, pp. 3949, esp. 46–8Google Scholar: and Anthropology in Theological Perspective, Philadelphia: Westminster, 1985.Google Scholar

21 Betti, E., Die Hermeneutik als allgemeine Methodik der Gesiteswissenschaften, Tübingen: Mohr, 2nd edn 1972, p. 7.Google Scholar