BOOK REVIEW:
The Theology of the Reformed Confessions. By Karl Barth.  Translated and annotated by Darrell L. Guder and Judith J. Guder.   Columbia Series in Reformed Theology. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002. 336 pp. ISBN 0664222617. 

This welcome volume is one of the Columbia Series in Reformed Theology, made available under the joint auspices of the Westminster John Knox Press and Columbia Theological Seminary. The stated purpose of the series is “to provide theological resources from the Reformed Tradition for the church today.” Certainly this book is such a resource.

Translated and annotated by Darrell L. and Judith J. Guder, this book derives from lectures given by Karl Barth to theological students in Gottingen in 1923.  The setting was one of a broad based and robust attempt to recover the Reformed confessions as a vital part of the church’s theological heritage and one that had pertinence for the contemporary tasks of ministry. It was a time characterized by Barth as “confessionally weak but not simply confessionless” (p. viii).

This attempt to reclaim the living past of the Reformed confessions was part of a larger undertaking arising out of the 19th century both to renew appreciation for and encourage the use of confessions.  The Reform movement was paralleled by a similar undertaking by the Lutheran Church.  Thus, the Reformed and Lutheran perspectives were theological conversational partners as each sought to clarify and advance their understandings of the gospel.  In such an engagement it is not surprising that Barth as a Reformed theologian is jealous for the primacy of scripture and the secondary authority of the confessions. He maintains the importance of the occasional nature of confessions over against a Lutheran view that he believes elevates its confessional documents to canonical standing. Barth argues for a Reformed understanding that emphasizes the qualitative distinction between the two traditions.  In the midst of the discussion, Barth provides a very helpful Reformed perspective on the authority of both scripture and confession, a perspective that remains useful for current discussions. He writes: “the significance of the confession in the Reformed church consists in its essential ‘non’significance, its obvious relativity, humanity, multiplicity, mutability, and transitoriness” (p. 38). And, “Reformed Confessions, as long as and to the extent that they are Reformed, will always be ‘many’ and not one.” The extraordinary number of Reformed confessions, each with its own distinctive voice, documents such a claim. 

There are many ways this volume can be helpful today. Barth’s elucidation of particular theological themes and issues is carried on with attention being given to the historical context of the confessions as well as to the integrity of the theological tradition. Thus, the reader could well go to this volume for assistance in understanding more fully such Reformed doctrines as—predictably— predestination and the nature of ministry. One can, under Barth’s tutelage, explore the ins and outs of how these convictions developed and how they persist while reflecting changing emphases.

Another use of this volume is its exploration of particular confessions. For example, the sections on the English confessions aids in understanding and explaining such great endeavors as the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms, and the Scots Confession. In each case Barth treats the individual confessions with great erudition and provides resources for our exploration of the same issues that are present in our own time.  Yet there is a theological unity that threads its way through all these confessions. In completing his discussion of these documents, he writes: “Perhaps, however, if in spite of all these differences one thing is the same in all these documents, then one can pay attention to the movement in which the formulation of this one thing has taken place. There really can be no doubt that there is truly one thing that is the same in all these documents, something that forms them all as a unity over against the Augsburg Confession, that makes them into characteristically Reformed confessions. This one thing is, of course, the understanding of Christianity as the connection grounded in God and effected in humans, of the invisible divine truth of life and the visible renewal of human life, of divine turning and human converting, of the knowledge of God and self, of New Testament and Old Testament revelation, of gift and task, of justification and rebirth, of covenant of grace and covenant of law, of faith and duty . . . or however else it may be phrased. This connection is the positive Reformed doctrine of Christianity” (pp, 147,148).                                

Further, one is struck by Barth’s consistent relating of the confessional tradition to the tasks of ministry. For example, he notes how the confessions affirm the centrality of preaching as proclamation of the Gospel, a position contended for in confession after confession.

This is a volume rich in its own right. It is also of historic interest to Barth scholars who can discern here the continuing movement of Barth’s theology from the Romans to the dogmatics.

One cannot say too much about the splendid work done by the Guders in making these lectures accessible in English. The scholarly apparatus, the careful footnoting, and the cross-referencing invite appreciation and heartfelt thanks. 

Finally, the pertinence of this volume to the current struggles in the churches about the authority of scripture, the place and nature of confessions, and of what constitutes the Reformed tradition is transparent. 

Jack Stotts
President Emeritus, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Austin, TX

PUBLISHED IN THE BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE FOR REFORMED THEOLOGY, SPRING/SUMMER 2003, VOL. 3, #2.