Religion: Bit for Barth’s Bite

From his aerie in Switzerland, hawk-eyed Karl Barth, 72, Europe’s most prestigious Protestant theologian, peers coolly at the Christian West. Last week U.S. Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, 66, glared right back. In the Christian Century, Niebuhr sharply answered Barth’s latest anti-West pronouncement—a 45-page pamphlet addressed to an anonymous pastor in East Germany who had asked for spiritual guidance.

Barth began by spraying a plague on “the forces and powers” of both East and West, but the plague on the West soon took precedence. “If there is such a thing as hostility toward Christ,” Barth said, “it does not exist in the Communist East alone.” The “evil spirit” manifests itself in the East as “open totalitarianism, backed by an all-powerful political party.” whereas in the West it takes the form of “creeping totalitarianism, backed by powerful institutions, such as press, private enterprise, public opinion and arrogant wealth.” Moreover, the Communist regime of East Germany may be regarded as “a tool of God which fulfills a definite function according to the Lord’s plans: the function of a punishing rod …”

Barth’s inquiring pastor had asked whether he should resort to prayer to ”pray away” East Germany’s Communist government. Replied Barth: “Would you really take the responsibility of approaching the Lord with such a plea? Aren’t you afraid that God might grant your request and that some morning you might wake up among those Egyptian fleshpots which symbolize the American way of life? We in the West have been struggling for many a year with the powers and demons that hover over the land of the ‘economic miracle’ [ meaning West Germany], this land which thoughtlessly joined NATO and proceeded to rearm . . . Pray for us as we pray for you.”

Theologian Niebuhr could not wholly discount Barth’s “above-the-battle Christian witness.” since “East and West alike are in equal condemnation by the real gospel.” Yet the price of this attitude can be “moral irrelevance”—flawed by such asides as Barth’s sneer at “praying away” Communism because God’s answer might be American “fleshpots.” Chided Niebuhr: “The dilemma is so deep that I would prefer to let the eminent theologian stew in it for a while, at least until he realizes that he is not the only prophet of the Lord.” Barth’s attitude “always involves the danger of speaking after the imagination of our own hearts. It is subject to Jeremiah’s condemnation about the false prophets.”*

More sharp words flared last week from Karl Barth’s son, Dr. Marcus Barth, 43, of the University of Chicago’s Federated Theological Faculty. The younger Barth denounced U.S. Sunday schools for shunning reality with syrupy sermons that “Mama loves me. Papa loves me, teacher loves me, God loves me. This develops self-centered young egoists.” The schools even launder Bible stories so that “Egyptians never drowned, John the Baptist was not beheaded.” Urged Barth: “Even eight-year-olds can know that all the world is not rosy . . . Sunday schools should be ahead of the development of the child.”

* “Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart.” (Jeremiah 14:14)