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Karl Barth and radical politics
Karl Barth was one of the most important Christian theologians of the twentieth century, but his political views have often not been taken sufficiently into account. Beginning with a representative early essay by Karl Barth, this volume proceeds with essays by Friedrich-Wilhelm Marquardt, Helmut Gollwitzer, Hermann Diem, Dieter Schellong, Joseph Bettis, and George Hunsinger. These contributions engage both the relationship of Barth's theology to his socialist politics as well as Marquardt's analysis. This new edition expands upon the earlier one by adding three new essays by Hunsinger on Barth's theology and its relevance for human rights, liberation theology, and the theories of Rene Girard on violence and scapegoating. Hunsinger has extended the discussion as well as deepened our insight into how theology can speak meaningfully about fundamental issues of human need. ""Hunsinger is without question one of the world's leading authorities on Karl Barth, and this book was also without doubt one of his most seminal contributions to Barth studies. Since its original publication, Hunsinger's Karl Barth and Radical Politics has guided generations of students in understanding Karl Barth's theo-political vision. This new updated edition with additional essays by Hunsinger is an enormous gift to us."" --Willie James Jennings, Yale Divinity School ""This is a very welcome and timely second edition of Hunsinger's classic collection of arguments in German and English-speaking countries over how engaging Barth's theology requires engaging Barth's radical politics--Hunsinger's new preface and essays challenge progressives inside and outside the church to deal with 'the depredations of modern banks, intelligence agencies, armament industries, and rapacious corporations'. Caveat emptor."" --James Buckley, Professor at Loyola University, Maryland ""George Hunsinger, being one of the best Barth scholars, makes a great and provocative contribution to clarifying F. W. Marquardt's groundbreaking study of Barth's theology for the relevance of the living God in Jesus Christ to social political issues, especially economic democracy. Like Weber's thesis on the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism, an affinity between Barth and democratic socialism, that Hunsinger convincingly explores in regard to human rights, liberation, and race, promises to serve as an acumen and red thread in further Barth research. This cannot be overlooked."" --Paul S. Chung, Author of Karl God's Word in Action George Hunsinger is Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was director of the seminary's Center for Karl Barth Studies, 1997-2001. His books include How to Read Karl Barth (1991); Disruptive Studies in the Theology of Karl Barth (2001); For the Sake of the Karl Barth and the Future of Ecclesial Theology (2004); Evangelical, Catholic, and Doctrinal Essays on Barth and Related Themes (2015); and Reading Barth with A Hermeneutical Proposal (2015). He is also editor of Thy Word Is Barth on Scripture (2012), as well as the forthcoming Blackwell Companion to Karl Barth (2 vols.).
236 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1981
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About the author
George Hunsinger
37 books12 followersGeorge Hunsinger (PhD, Yale University) is Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. He is best known for his critically acclaimed work in Barth’s theology and has been president of the Karl Barth Society of North American since 2003.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 8, 2025
I haven’t read all of it. I need to. But the book gets 5 stars just for the “Jesus Christ and the Movement for Social Justice” essay.
“One might well say that for eighteen hundred years the Christian church, when confronted by social misery, has always referred to the Spirit, to the inner life, to heaven. The church has preached, instructed, and consoled, but she has not helped. Indeed, in the face of social misery she has always commended help as a good work of Christian love, but she has not dared to say that help is the good work. She has not said that social misery ought not to be, in order then to summon all her power for the sake of this conviction that it ought not to be….That is the great, momentous apostasy of the Christian church, her apostasy from Christ.”
“One might well say that for eighteen hundred years the Christian church, when confronted by social misery, has always referred to the Spirit, to the inner life, to heaven. The church has preached, instructed, and consoled, but she has not helped. Indeed, in the face of social misery she has always commended help as a good work of Christian love, but she has not dared to say that help is the good work. She has not said that social misery ought not to be, in order then to summon all her power for the sake of this conviction that it ought not to be….That is the great, momentous apostasy of the Christian church, her apostasy from Christ.”
December 22, 2025
Extremely informative.
One way to read Barth is that he is seeking to maintain the reality of God post-Feuerbach so that he can ground practical righteousness, which for him can be summarized as “socialism.”
One way to read Barth is that he is seeking to maintain the reality of God post-Feuerbach so that he can ground practical righteousness, which for him can be summarized as “socialism.”
April 12, 2014
I'd known they called the young Barth the "red pastor of Safenwil", involved with labor action there; and that he'd called for preachers to "read the Bible with one hand, the newspaper with the other". This book fills in those details and then some. It's a compiled volume, including both some early Barth on socialism and social action and several essays from the '70s prompted by Marquardt's argument that Barth's mature theology should be read through an anarcho-syndicalist lens.
From the whole, Barth emerges as an eclectic lefty, primarily concerned with God's sovereignty against both bourgeois and revolutionary ideologies but oriented toward oppressed people of all sorts. His reputation for political quietism is not unearned—he didn't talk politics with his students, for instance—but he did ask for the committed socialist Gollwitzer to succeed him at Basle, a request the board there denied! (Gollwitzer's essay is a volume highlight.) Hunsinger characterizes Barth as a curious combination of InterVarsity and the American Friends Service Committee, which is both plausible from my reading of him and (if I may say so) country I know exceedingly well.
For me, the most striking theological point in the book is the genealogical work showing that Barth's account of "love" and "freedom" as the divine attributes begins as his youthful description of an ideal socialist society. That's specific enough to teach, more so than simply saying Barth is looking for a theology adequate to praxis.
From the whole, Barth emerges as an eclectic lefty, primarily concerned with God's sovereignty against both bourgeois and revolutionary ideologies but oriented toward oppressed people of all sorts. His reputation for political quietism is not unearned—he didn't talk politics with his students, for instance—but he did ask for the committed socialist Gollwitzer to succeed him at Basle, a request the board there denied! (Gollwitzer's essay is a volume highlight.) Hunsinger characterizes Barth as a curious combination of InterVarsity and the American Friends Service Committee, which is both plausible from my reading of him and (if I may say so) country I know exceedingly well.
For me, the most striking theological point in the book is the genealogical work showing that Barth's account of "love" and "freedom" as the divine attributes begins as his youthful description of an ideal socialist society. That's specific enough to teach, more so than simply saying Barth is looking for a theology adequate to praxis.
December 27, 2022
Excellent collection of essays from various perspectives on Barth’s political thought. Important contribution to understanding his theology.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews