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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 January 2009
In recent articles on Karl Barth and St. Anselm, Gordon Watson has drawn attention to what he regards as a ‘characteristic systematic weakness’ or ‘systemic problem in Barth's methodology’. This has its origins in Barth's failure to ‘take into account St. Anselm's assumption of the importance of a common rational structure in thought and language existent between believer and unbeliever as the basis for speech about God’ and has consequences not only for Barth's exposition of Anselm's ‘theological scheme’ but also for the subsequent development of Barth's soteriology in that he ‘undervalues the importance of the historical humanity of Jesus in the action of the atonement’.
1 Watson, G. ‘Karl Barth and St. Anselm's Theological Programme’. Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol.30, 1, p.31CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Watson, G. ‘A Study in St. Anselm's Soteriology and Karl Barth's Theological Method’. Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol.42, 4, p.493CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 Ibid.
4 Barth, K.E.T.Anselm:Fides Quaerens Intellectum. London, 1960, pp.15–72Google Scholar
5 Watson, G. ‘A Study in St. Anselm's Soteriology and Karl Barth's Theological Method’, p.493Google Scholar
6 Eberhard, Jüngel. Karl Barth A Theological Legacy translated by Paul, Garrett E.. Philadelphia, 1986Google Scholar
7 Eberhard, Jungel. God as the Mystery of the World translated by Gruder, Darrell F.. Edinburgh, 1983Google Scholar
8 Eberhard, Jüngel. Theological Essays translated and edited by Webster, J.B.. Edinburgh, 1989Google Scholar
9 Torrance, T.F.Karl Barth, Biblical & Evangelical Theologian Edinburgh, 1990Google Scholar
10 ‘Karl Barth and St. Anselm's Theological Programme’, p.41
11 Indeed we now know that they tended to use later reformulations of Anselm's argument, Aquinas not referring to Anselm by name whilst Kant actually refers to the ‘celebrated demonstration by Descartes’ (see ed. Hick, J. & McGill, A.The Many-faced Argument. London, 1968, p.38)Google Scholar
12 Barth, op.cit., pp.73–171
13 Translations will follow Barth's exposition of the text
14 Barth, op.cit., p.171
15 I have argued elsewhere (in an unpublished M.Phil thesis Karl Barth and Anselm - the significance of Fides Quaerens Intellectum for the Church Dogmatics. Birmingham, 1989)Google Scholar that Barth's exposition of the Trinity, wherein the Son becomes the objective, and in turn the Holy Spirit the subjective, reality and thus possibility of revelation, is itself heavily influenced by the threefold structure of ratio and esse to be found in his exposition of Anselm's ‘theological scheme’.
16 Charlesworth, M.St. Anselm's Proslogion. Oxford, 1965, p.45Google Scholar
17 McIntyre, J.St. Anselm and his Critics. Edinburgh, 1954, p.45Google Scholar
18 See Charlesworth, op.cit., pp.26–30
19 Barth, op. cit., p. 18
20 Barth, K. Church Dogmatics 2.1, pp.97–126 T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1932ff.
21 Ibid., 4.3, pp.112–3
22 Torrance, T.F., ‘The place of Word and Truth in Theological Inquiry according to St. Anselm’, (in Balic, Carolo et al. , Studia mediaevalia et mariologica. Rome: Antonianum, 1971)Google Scholar
‘The Ethical Implications of Anselm's De Veritate’, University of Basel, 1968Google Scholar
Anselm’ (forthcomsing in Ecclesia kai Theologica. Athens)
23 Torrance, T.F., Karl Barth: an Introduction to his Early Theology 1910–31. London, 1962, p.182Google Scholar
24 Karl Barth Biblical & Evangelical Theobgian p. 150
25 Ibid., p. 69
26 Ibid., p.68
27 Jüngel, Eberhard. E.T.The Doctrine of the Trinity, God's Being is in Becoming. Scottish Academic Press, 1976, p.viiGoogle Scholar
28 Ibid, p.xii, n.8
29 Karl Barth A Theological legacy p.41
30 Ibid., p.43
31 Ibid., p.42
32 Torrance, T.F., The Ground and Grammar of Theology. Belfast, 1980, p.99Google Scholar
33 See also Torrance, T.F., The Trinitarian Faith. Edinburgh, 1988, pp.68–75Google Scholar
34 Torrance, T.F. ‘The Ground and Grammar of Theology. p.99Google Scholar
35 Barth, K.Church Dogmatics 2.1, pp.92ff.Google Scholar
36 Torrance, T.F.The Ground and Grammar of Theology, p.80Google Scholar
37 Ibid., p.93
38 Ibid., p99
39 Ibid., p.100
40 Ibid., pp.110–145
41 Ibid., pp.96–7
42 Ibid., p.81
43 Ibid., pp.93–4
44 Ibid., p. 93
45 Barth, Karl, Biblical & Evangelical Theologian p. 130Google Scholar
46 The Ground and Grammar of Theology, p. 72
47 Ibid., p.73
48 God as the Mystery of the World pp.viii-ix
49 The actual phrase in the Preface to Anselm's Cur Deus homo? is ‘remoto Christo quasi nunquam aliquid fuerit de illo… quasi nihil sciatur de Christo’
50 The Doctrine of the Trinity, God's Being is in Becoming p.21
51 God as the Mystery of the World, p.7
52 Ibid., p.34
53 Ibid., p p. 14–35
54 Karl Barth A Theological Legacy p. 128
55 Ibid., p.128
56 Karl Barth, Biblical & Evangelical Theologian p. 164
57 Ibid., p.178
58 Ibid., 143
59 God as the Mystery of the World p.288
60 Ibid.,
61 Theological Essays pp. 16–71
62 Ibid., p.70
63 Ibid., p.68
64 Ibid., p.71
65 Karl Barth, Biblical & Evangelical Theologian p.232
66 Mark 15.34 (Cf. Matthew 27.46) Biblical quotations are taken from the Revised English Bible. Oxford & Cambridge, 1989
67 John 1.9
68 I Corinthians 1.27–8
69 Mark 4.12
70 I Corinthians 13.12
71 Anselm of Canterbury. A Meditation on Human Redemption (in The Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm trans. Sister Benedicta Ward SLG., Penguin, 1973, pp.230–1)
