Final Testimonies

By Karl Barth

The five brief pieces collected here represent the final words prepared by Karl Barth for publication, all of them originating during the period from his serious illness in August of 1968 to his death in December of that same year. The final selection is a fragment left unfinished the night he died.

The last word that I have to say as a theologian or politician is not a concept like grace but a name: Jesus Christ. He is grace and he is the ultimate one beyond world and church and even theology. We cannot lay hold of him. But we have to do with him.... There is no salvation but in this name. In him is grace.

Karl Barth, 'Final Testimonies'

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Release date: Oct 21, 2003
• ISBN: 9781498270755

Karl Barth

Karl Barth (1886-1968) was a pastor, an outspoken critic of the rise of the Nazi Party, and Professor of Theology at the University of Basel, Switzerland.

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FINAL TESTIMONIES

BY

KARL BARTH

edited by Eberhard Busch

translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley

This book is a translation from the German edition of Karl Barth, Letzte Zeugnisse, published by Theologischer Verlag, Zürich. It appears by permission of Theologischer Verlag.

Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 West 8th Avenue, Suite 3

Eugene, Oregon 97401

Final Testimonies

By Barth, Karl

Copyright©1977 Theologischer Verlag Zurich

ISBN: 1-59244-402-4

EISBN: 978-1-4982-7075-5

Publication date 10/21/2003

Previously published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977

English translation copyright©1977, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

CONTENTS

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE

FOREWORD

TESTIMONY TO JESUS CHRIST

MUSIC FOR A GUEST—A RADIO BROADCAST

LIBERAL THEOLOGY—AN INTERVIEW

RADIO SERMONS CATHOLIC AND EVANGELICAL

STARTING OUT, TURNING ROUND, CONFESSING

EPILOGUE

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE

Particular weight and solemnity has always been attached to last words. It is for this reason rather than for any outstanding merit or originality that Karl Barth’s final testimonies to the gospel command our interest. What were the things on his mind when life was obviously drawing to a close? What did he most want to say or stress within the confines of his specific assignments? Where is the essential core of his thinking and message?

Perhaps the first of the chosen pieces brings us closest to the heart of the matter. When asked to testify to what Christ means to him, Barth answers clearly and boldly but refuses to be pressed into a purely individualistic or private statement. Christ means to him what he means to all others. Even in the most personal confession he thus preserves the sense of community, not just in the sense of for me and for all others too, but in the sense of for all others and for me too.

The other statements express no less typical Barthian themes. Love of Mozart goes hand in hand with a first and last conviction that theological work serves the preaching and pastoral ministry. Authentic liberalism is to be espoused and not opposed, and church matters, including theology, are for all Christians, not for clergy as distinct from laity. The Roman and Reformed churches can grow together ecumenically as the former develops the ministry of the word and the latter the complementary ministry of the sacrament. The pattern of church life must be one of ongoing moving forward which is also a moving back, of constant exodus and conversion, in which the abiding factor is confession of the one Lord Jesus Christ.

The old humor is there, the element of surprise, a little more reminiscing, as one expects in the old, and the kindly spirit which gradually replaced the early pugnacity. The words are simple, and they add little to what Barth has said in his previous writings. But behind them stands a wealth of thought and experience endowing them with a peculiar poignancy and force.

It is fitting—perhaps even symbolic—that the last of these final pieces breaks off in the middle of a sentence. Barth had always recognized that theology can never achieve a final utterance. His masterpiece, the Church Dogmatics, remained a magnificent but uncompleted fragment. The last word, after all, cannot be spoken by us. It has to be spoken to us by him who speaks the last word as well as the first.

The words of Karl Barth are ended, but the Word of God which he attempted to serve lives and endures forever.

Pasadena

G. W. Bromiley

FOREWORD

The Karl Barth Society of North America was founded October 1972 to promote a critical and constructive theology in continuity with the work of Karl Barth. Among its various activities, the Society is committed to encouraging and, where possible, assisting the publication of Barth’s posthumous works. Accordingly I am grateful to be able to congratulate the Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company for making Barth’s Final Testimonies available to English readers.

It is fitting that the translation of this little book, whose importance far exceeds its brevity, should come from the hand of Geoffrey F. Bromiley. He, far more than anyone else, has been responsible for the translation of the thirteen monumental volumes of the Church Dogmatics. Beginning with Volume I,