Applying the Brakes:
I Beckon Myself to Circumspection
In Reading Karl Barth

At the present time, I think I need denouement of sorts; in reading the past entries, I balk at the somewhat irksome tone of my comments on Barth.

Barth wants me to heed his message, as practically any preacher does. The problem is that this form of preaching does not "speak" to me, and looks human-all-too-human in motive-- if not banal. Were I not a person accustomed to interpreting people who say they have direct inspiration from God as being part of a great host of deranged and megalomaniac people, the task of sorting out Barth's goodness would be easier. But he sounds familiarly like the Fundamentalists and fanatics I have met, both outside and inside the 'asylum.' It could be that I shall never 'agree' that accusedly-profane people engaged in the scientific study of religion are 10000% humanists who have forgotten God; it could possibly be that that Barth's message will always have a tone of falsity to me therefore. But the objective at this point is to understand the prevailing theologists held with esteem by Fundamentalists.

[Whether this endorsement of Barth by Fundamentalists is warranted may be another matter; Barth's written sentiments about the place for the historical-critical method, and his non-literalist reading of the Bible would hardly make him a 'Fundamentalist' in the-whole. Barth may thus be a 'broken stick' to lean upon by theological conservatives.]

My sample of the total Barth corpus probably approaches one tenth; this only means that I have not read Church Dogmatics-- a large and very expensive and incomplete 'set' that my present incentive to acquire and read is only a little higher than reading all the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for the United States. There is a strong sense that I do not like the What of Barth-- and have found his How long since suspect-- so this profundissimo of understanding will be a goal hard-to-come by.

Really, I do not much care whether Barth had a long-time-something with Charlotte von Kirschbaum; this seems to have been the product of a late-life involvement, pattern for which comes from a younger -- if not youthful-- Barth with particular focus on his first pastoral experiences in Safenwil. This biography and some better annotation about his 'crisis' in World War I are desiderata. I in no wise wish to be a 'muckraker'; however for the purposes of Verstehen I need to gather what information I can about the stimulus motivation from which the first theologizing derives, and then the formation of the 'frame' in which the CD was cast. These would seem to be a minimum requirement for a hylebiopsychosocial understanding.

In short, I need to ease up on the 'judgments' as required by my method. I am only engaged in a 'yes-but' -- but a potentially-terminable yes-but-- by anything but the adherence to the techniques of Verstehen. I think this is fair-play; for those who play yes-but with me, however, there may be no satisfaction in this approach.

--Vernon Lynn Stephens, Culdee
Time of Vespers
Ste. Helena's Day