The Spirit of God and the Christian Life: Reconstructing Karl Barth's Pneumatology
Interpreters of Karl Barth’s theology have long noted a limited role for the Holy Spirit in his work. JinHyok Kim challenges this prevailing paradigm, reconstructing Barth’s pneumatology and proposing the possible contours it would have taken in the final volumes of Church Dogmatics left incomplete at Barth’s death.
Within this reconstruction, Kim explores the contexts of Barth’s work and demonstrates the connection of Barth’s doctrine of the Spirit with the realities and practices of the Christian life. Here a new standard for understanding Barth’s Trinitarian theology opens up and offers fresh reading of an important topic in modern theology.
- Publisher Fortress Press
- Format Paperback
- ISBN 9781451470260
- eBook ISBN 9781451479812
- Dimensions 6 x 9
- Pages 288
- Emerging Scholars category Theology
- Publication Date March 1, 2014
Contents
Contents:
I. Introduction: Redemption, Pneumatology, and the Christian Life in Karl Barth
II. Prayer, the Spirit, and Redemption: A Constructive Reading of Barth’s Pneumatology
III. The Spirit and the Revelation of the Word of God
IV. The Spirit and the Beauty of the Lord
V. The Spirit and the Drama of Salvation in History
VI. Conclusion: A Prayerful Seeking for the Fulfillment of God’s Promise
Bibliography
Endorsements
“JinHyok Kim is surely an important ‘emerging scholar’ on the evidence of this fine study of the Spirit in Barth’s corpus. The scholarship is precise and the book argues, contrary to many critics, that the theme of the Spirit is constantly subsumed in Barth’s mature work. Kim elucidates Barth’s theology of beauty, and of prayer, with great clarity making the book a rich resource for church as well as academy.”
—Timothy Bradshaw
University of Oxford
“While recent scholarship on Barth has increasingly been recognizing the significant place of the Holy Spirit in his theology, this very impressive study by JinHyok Kim still breaks new ground in relating Barth’s doctrine of the Spirit to practices of the Christian life. In particular, this is an original and highly illuminating exposition of Barth’s understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit in culture and aesthetics, uncovering the pneumatological link between the glory of God and beauty in the world.”
—Paul S. Fiddes
Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford
“Does Karl Barth sideline the Spirit, or effectively replace pneumatology with Christology, as many commentators have maintained? This elegant first monograph painstakingly shows how this is not the case, and how Barth’s implicit and distinctive pneumatology is woven into these theories of redemption, revelation, and prayer right from the start of his theological career. This perceptive study reveals with new force the absolute centrality for Barth of the life of prayer as undergirding all theological endeavour.”
—Sarah Coakley
University of Cambridge
—Timothy Bradshaw
University of Oxford
“While recent scholarship on Barth has increasingly been recognizing the significant place of the Holy Spirit in his theology, this very impressive study by JinHyok Kim still breaks new ground in relating Barth’s doctrine of the Spirit to practices of the Christian life. In particular, this is an original and highly illuminating exposition of Barth’s understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit in culture and aesthetics, uncovering the pneumatological link between the glory of God and beauty in the world.”
—Paul S. Fiddes
Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford
“Does Karl Barth sideline the Spirit, or effectively replace pneumatology with Christology, as many commentators have maintained? This elegant first monograph painstakingly shows how this is not the case, and how Barth’s implicit and distinctive pneumatology is woven into these theories of redemption, revelation, and prayer right from the start of his theological career. This perceptive study reveals with new force the absolute centrality for Barth of the life of prayer as undergirding all theological endeavour.”
—Sarah Coakley
University of Cambridge