Christian community and civil community
Christengemeinde und Bürgergemeinde is the title of a book by Karl Barth that deals with the relationship between church and state .
Emergence
Barth held a visiting professorship at the University of Bonn in the summer semester of 1946 . In addition to his university duties, he traveled to several German cities and, according to his own account, gave around twenty lectures to mostly large auditoriums. In terms of content, however, there were only four lectures that Barth gave several times, each free and only according to key words or principles. One of them was the Christian community and civil parish . Barth's intention in this lecture was to treat the relationship between church and state in the sense of the 5th Barmer thesis and therefore also in the sense of the Confessing Church .
The lecture was published in the same year as a brochure both in the Theological Studies series published by Barth himself in the Evangelischer Verlag Zurich and in the German Christian Kaiser Verlag . In the following years he saw numerous reprints.
Basic theological ideas
In dealing with the Lutheran doctrine of the two kingdoms , Barth tried to redefine the relationship between church and state. According to him, both relate to one another like the inner and outer of two concentric circles, the common center being Jesus Christ . “The state is outside the church, but not outside the sphere of rule of Jesus Christ.” Barth rejected clerical patronizing of the state, but considered the “civil parish” to be capable of and in need of parables.
The National Socialist state argued positivistically : what is right is what benefits the people. In the post-war period, the idea of natural law was attractive. Barth believed that under natural law, state and church would have to adjust to one another; it is then a right that binds both. As a consequence, this is also positivism. "After all, who think I always know the nature of man is best who set the standards of justice." Barth pleaded not to legislate, but to provisionally and metaphorically looking .
In the second part of the book, Barth clarified what he meant by means of a few analogies that Christofer Frey would like to see understood as rhetorical figures that indicate perspectives, and not as deductions. This list of analogies has been criticized many times. "The» conclusion «from the revelation of the true God to the rejection of secret diplomacy seemed curious (and still works today) ."
Examples:
- Because God became man ( incarnation ), Christians value the right of man more than the right of things in the political sphere;
- Because God was downward, Christians are committed to social justice;
- From the biblical formula “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” it is derived for Barth that Christians are looking for equality.
This concerns first of all the Christian community itself. In its own form ( church order ) it should realize these perspectives in an exemplary way.
Text output
- Christian community and civil parish , Zurich 1946.
- Justification and Law / Christian Church and Civic Church . (= Theological Studies . Volume 104) 3rd edition. Zurich 1984.
literature
- Christofer Frey: The theology of Karl Barths. An introduction. Athenaeum, Frankfurt / Main 1988. ISBN 3-610-09112-6 .