Category: Philosophy

Returning To Barth’s Geschichte & Historie

(For Barth) Geschichte (as opposed to his Historie) is a moment in which eternity enters time. Wrapped up in that moment is all the theology of Christianity; God, creation, man, evil, the fall, Christ, the incarnation, reconciliation, resurrection, and parousia. Occasionally some element of this complex will touch down in ordinary time and space, as Barth asserts of the resurrection. But that time-and-space happening is never to be identified with the saving event of Geschichte. Barth describes these happenings as ‘pointers’ to the real salvation that comes through the momentary revelatory Geschichte.”

John Frame

A History of Western Philosophy and Theology – p. 381

What is important to keep in mind here is that Barth does not believe in what most people would call the historical reality — the occurrence of the supernatural in time and space – as not true in the sense that all of it historically took place. For example, if you somehow would have had a cell-phone at the resurrection you could not have videoed Jesus resurrection because the resurrection didn’t happen in that sense. That would be the sense of Historie. Barth rejects Historie because it pertains to the supernatural of the Christian faith and the supernatural cannot occur in time and space as Historie.

For Barth it is possible (though not necessary) for Historie to point to Geschichte. Whether Historie points to Geschichte is person variable. As stated above by Frame, (but now put into my own linguistic magic) Geschichte is like the fairy dust that falls off and so emanates from the Historie. It is this Geschichte fairy dust that makes the Historie to be “true” even though it is not true. The Historie can point to the Geschichte the way that a sign on the road can point to a Gas Station (that isn’t really there). However, for Barth, the Geschichte is enough to convert because when the Geschichte is encountered in a personal event moment then the Gas Station becomes true for the person having the Geschichte encounter event. This is what Barth means by the Geshcichte being a pointer. The event that didn’t happen can serve as a pointer to the impact of the event as if it did happen and someone having that Geschichte encounter moment can now be considered a Christian.

All of this is true of the Scriptures as well. The Scriptures are tangled up with Historie and so as Historie they may or may not be true but they are not true as having the objective quality of inerrancy or inspiration. However, the Scripture, as Historie, may serve as a pointer to revelational encounter Geschichte that results in making the Bible true for the reader having said Geschichte encounter.

This is Barth’s Christianity and this is why some categorize Barth with the existentialist “theologians.”

I find this material fascinating because I know of a former CRC Pastor who was a Barthian but who got away with his Barthianism because most of the rest of the CRC were also Barthian, or if they weren’t, weren’t smart enough to know the games that this chap was playing in order to secure his ordination. The funny thing about this story is that this chap was assigned to be my mentor when I entered the CRC. You can imagine the fireworks that took place.