A reassessment of what Gary Dorrien has called the “founding narrative of twentieth-century theology” is thoroughly underway. This narrative often revolves around Karl Barth’s critique of Friedrich Schleiermacher and liberal theology. However, as Paul Dafydd Jones’ chapter in the recent Oxford Handbook demonstrates, there is far more nuance to this history—enough to suggest a drastic revision. Indeed, even a cursory reading of Barth’s interpretation of Schleiermacher offers up a more complex portrait than expected. Readers do not meet a dismissive Barth but rather a Barth torn between deep appreciation and critique.
This paper seeks to contribute to a reassessment of this history by analyzing an underexamined aspect of Barth’s interpretation of Schleiermacher: Barth’s positive reception of his social ethics. In the 1923/24 semester at Göttingen, Barth’s lectures focused on Schleiermacher’s sermons. In a particularly interesting section on his late sermons, Barth praises Schleiermacher’s social ethics, even going so far as to suggest that Schleiermacher surpassed the social ethics of early socialist figures such as St. Simon and Charles Fourier. In particular, Barth highlights Schleiermacher’s critique of economic inequality and his call to reduce the workday. He argues emphatically that this social aspect of Schleiermacher’s thought “should never be forgotten” (Barth 1982, 39). These remarks challenge the founding narrative of modern theology but also open up new avenues for reassessing Barth’s reception of Schleiermacher.
What did Barth see in Schleiermacher’s sermons? Through a close reading of Barth’s Göttingen lectures and other later texts, this paper suggests that one of the factors contributing to Barth’s nuanced appreciation of Schleiermacher was his social ethics. This nuance points to an ambiguity in the reception history of Schleiermacher’s theology. On the one hand, Barth laid at Schleiermacher’s feet a particular way of doing theology that contributed to the Kulturprotestantismus of his liberal professors. On the other hand, Barth perhaps recognized a more radical Schleiermacher hidden underneath the interpretations he inherited. From this, a potential point of convergence between Barth and Schleiermacher emerges around their respective politics, one that might open doors for a reassessment of their legacies.
This paper considers an underexamined aspect of Karl Barth's interpretation of Friedrich Schleiermacher: Barth's positive reception of his social ethics. In his 1923/24 lectures, Barth goes so far as to suggest that Schleiermacher surpassed the social ethics of early socialist figures such as St. Simon and Charles Fourier. In particular, Barth highlights Schleiermacher’s critique of economic inequality and his call to reduce the workday. He argues emphatically that this social aspect of Schleiermacher’s thought “should never be forgotten” (Barth 1982, 39). These remarks challenge what Gary Dorrien has called the "founding narrative" of modern theology. From this, a potential point of convergence between Barth and Schleiermacher emerges around their respective politics, one that might open doors for a reassessment of their legacies.