‘Freedom from death’ and ‘freedom to death’: Karl Barth’s doctrine of death re-examined through the lens of apocalyptic patterns

This essay aims to examine Barth’s doctrine of death in Church Dogmatics III/2 §47 through the lens of apocalyptic patterns suggested by Pauline scholar Martinus de Boer. There are two academic interests that give rise to the present essay. Firstly, despite extensive studies on Karl Barth’s theology, the doctrine of death in Karl Barth’s work, as noted by Catholic theologian Karen Kilby, has not received significant attention within current Barth scholarship.[1] A more in-depth examination is required. Secondly, there has been growing recognition of the apocalyptic elements within Barth’s theology in recent years by Barth scholarship, but the apocalyptic characteristics of Barth’s concept of death remain relatively unexplored. The present essay hopes to address these two questions and advance the scholarly discussion on both Barth’s doctrine of death and the apocalyptic elements in Barth’s theology.

This essay will first differentiate between two types of death in Barth’s CD III/2, namely “natural death” and “evil death.” The former is a divine determination of humanity, which is proper to our creatureliness. Barth regards this death as the shadow side of creation, representing the frontier of life. Since everything created by God is inherently good, this temporal end of humans, which is an integral part of God’s grand design, is also inherently good. This perspective differs from the Augustinian and Reformed tradition, which solely regards death as the consequence or penalty of sin. Evil death, on the contrary, is alien to creation and is not part of God’s positive will. Concerning this evil death, Barth argues that “we certainly cannot say that it is an inherent part of human nature as God created it and as it is therefore good.” (CD III/2, 597) Therefore, it is evil in nature and does not form part of God’s good creation.

After that, the essay will engage in dialogue with Pauline scholar Martinus de Boer, who proposes that there are two apocalyptic patterns present in Jewish and Pauline literature. These two apocalyptic patterns are termed “cosmological apocalyptic” and “forensic apocalyptic.” The cosmological apocalyptic pattern conceives this world as under the dominion of evil powers and seeks God’s act of deliverance from these evil powers. The imagery of this pattern is a cosmic war involving three agents: God, the world, and anti-God powers. The forensic apocalyptic pattern, on the other hand, focuses on humanity’s rejection of God and God’s righteous judgment of human sin. The imagery of this pattern is a courtroom scene, involving the judge and the judged. These two apocalyptic patterns can effectively facilitate our understanding of Barth’s doctrine of death, as characteristics of both patterns are present in Barth’s discussion of evil death.

The third part of the essay will be a detailed examination of Barth’s concept of evil death with the lens of above-mentioned apocalyptic patterns. Previous Barth scholarship usually focuses primarily on either the cosmological pattern or the forensic pattern of Barth’s theology, but the examination of evil death in Barth reflects significant traits of both patterns. Regarding cosmological apocalyptic, Barth regards evil death as a form of das Nichtige (nothingness), which is an alien factor existing alongside the creator and creatures. Evil death is also the enemy of both God and creatures, existing as a captivating and offensive power threatening creatures. This echoes the cosmological apocalyptic motif of de Boer. On the other hand, Barth’s doctrine of evil death also exhibits a strong forensic apocalyptic sense, as he describes evil death as “a sign of the divine judgment” and ordained as a means of divine opus alienum. From this, we can see that evil death, in Barth’s theology, is simultaneously God’s enemy (which exhibits the cosmological apocalyptic element) and the means of God’s judgment on sinful humans (which exhibits the forensic apocalyptic element). The imagery of both cosmic war and courtroom is present.

In the final part of this essay, we will discuss the salvific effect of Christ’s crucifixion. Barth contends that Christ’s encounter with evil death in his crucifixion suffers the divine judgment on behalf of us (Barth calls this divine judgment “death in death”), so as to achieve the liberation of humanity from evil death (Barth calls it the “defeat of death”). Christ’s death not only gives us “freedom from death” but also “freedom to death,” so that humanity is both liberated from the enslavement of evil death and liberated for the natural death that corresponds to their divine determination.

In summary, examining Barth’s doctrine of evil death through the lens of apocalyptic patterns can help us capture the multifaceted nature of Barth’s understanding of death. Barth not only differentiates between natural death and evil death but also constructs evil death in a way that encompasses both cosmological apocalyptic and forensic apocalyptic elements. Through this examination, we can better understand how Christ’s death achieves both “freedom from death” and “freedom to death” for us.

Endnotes:

[1] Princeton Theological Seminary, “Karen Kilby | The 2019 Annual Karl Barth Conference - Lecture,” Video, YouTube, (June 25, 2019), 0:03:00, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGfaJxrBzA4. Scholars recently exploring Barth’s concept of death include Cambria Kaltwasser, who focuses on the covenantal dimension of death, and Nancy J. Duff, who utilizes Barth’s doctrine of death to discuss the ethics of resisting and accepting death. These discussions are insightful and constructive, but the apocalyptic characteristics of Barth’s doctrine of death and its theme of freedom remain relatively unaddressed in these discussions and require further investigation.