Encyclopedia
At the height of the current pandemic, this article seeks to explore the identity of the Creator God in Karl Barth’s doctrine of creation. Attention is given to his understanding of the eternal covenant God has made with humanity and how we are cared for within a covenantal fellowship. The study also concerns itself in how Barth’s distaste for the notion of analogia entis is somewhat unsustained in his treatment of creation. I argue that, to some extent, the analogy of being vis-à-vis the cosmos is complementarily employed with analogia fides in Barth’s articulation of creation-care. This is so as he reconfigures the talk on creation rigidly in and through Jesus Christ as Creator and creature.
- Covenant
- Karl Barth
- Creation-care
- analogia fides
- analogia entis
- creatio ex quod
- Sabbath rest
- Introduction
In the wake of the Great Lisbon earthquake in 1755, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed his masterpiece: Symphony in G-minor. Karl Barth commented that Mozart had the gift to hear the world holistically, that is, ‘He heard the negative only in and with the positive’ (Barth 2009. III/3, p. 298). That is exactly the aim of this article––to view the current pandemic with the goodness the Creator has in store for his creation.
It has been almost one and a half years that people worldwide are on lockdown due to the pandemic.[i] The havoc wrought by COVID-19 initiates wondering what lies ahead with the new normal.[ii] The relevance of Barth’s theology in this pressing predicament cannot be ignored––his articulation about God in the world still challenges the contemporary reader. Although he lived in a time different from the present, it is not so different at all as his thoughts were shaped by global upheaval as well.[iii] Far from suggesting a panacea, Barth’s theology could provide hope during the pandemic.
The study aims to discover why Barth conceives of the divine creative act in tandem with the divine communal act. Also, to argue that although Barth advances the notion of analogia fides (analogy-of-faith) in his theology, he somehow turns to analogia entis (analogy-of-being) in support of God’s creation-care. To achieve this, Barth’s doctrine of creation paired with his conception of God’s covenantal fellowship will be investigated. It begins with a brief account of ‘creation as the external basis of the covenant’ followed by the ‘covenant as the internal basis of creation’ with attention to the Creator God as Lord, Advocate, and Guardian. It expounds the four key reasons to hope in the covenant by looking at creation, namely: by seeing the light amidst the darkness, by inhabiting the space between waters, by staring up at the sky, and by celebrating the Sabbath. It concludes with a reflection on how Barth helps us redirect the talk on creation-care in Jesus Christ––the agent and lynchpin of creation.
Barth’s doctrine of creation in the Church Dogmatics, specifically expositing God as the Loving Creator (Barth 2009, §41) is foundational. The study is twofold: pedagogical and pastoral. It is pedagogical since it functions as a guidepost to the pathfinder in this dark situation, and it is pastoral because it delivers hope in seemingly hopeless situations. What the study will not do is delve deep into the issues of theodicy. This will be engaged nonetheless, in strict conjunction with Barth’s rendition of the Creator as a relational Person towards the creature.[iv]
[i] A city-wide quarantine was first enforced in Wuhan, China on 23 January 2020.
[ii] COVID-19 stands for coronavirus disease 2019.
[iii] Such as the First and Second World Wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War, and the outbreak of the Spanish flu.
[iv] Whenever the term ‘the creature’ is used, it pertains at once to the human creature.
Note: The complete article is accessed on Religions journal.
