So everyone has heard the oft-quoted quip of Barth to a group of pastors in Switzerland, “I myself have a certain weakness for Hegel and am always fond of doing a bit of ‘Hegeling.’” Barth himself wrote a chapter on Hegel in his Protestant Theology of the Nineteenth Century – an overview of this chapter can be found here. I’m developing a huge interest in the relationship between Barth and Hegel. It seems to me that there are striking similarities between their doctrines of God especially (if Bruce McCormack is to be trusted) with recourse to the later Barth. I’ve not really read very widely on the issue but in my current module on the theology of Karl Barth, I’m required to write an essay on the notion of election in Barth and it seems that the notion of an Hegelian influence within Barth’s conception of election is coming to the fore fairly regularly in contemporary studies of theology. Here’s a couple of chapters/articles I’ve found on the subject which highlight this topic:
Bruce L. McCormack – Grace and Being: the role of God’s Gracious Election in Barth’s Theological Ontology – which is found in the Cambridge Companion to Karl Barth.
Edwin Chr. van Driel – ‘Karl Barth on the Eternal Existence of Jesus Christ’ – Scottish Journal of Theology, vol. 60 (2007).
Bruce L. McCormack – ‘Seek God where he may be found: a response to Edwin Chr. van Driel’ – Scottish Journal of Theology, vol. 60 (2007).
Adam Eitel – ‘The Resurrection of Jesus Christ: Karl Barth and the Historicization of God’s Being’ – International Journal of Systematic Theology, vol. 10 (2008).
I wonder if there is any truth that Barth’s notion of election leads to certain ‘Hegelian’ tendencies and I wonder if this just proves the quip of Foucault – that all philosophers are “doomed to find Hegel waiting at the end of whatever road [they] travel”? In seeking to overcome metaphysics (to a certain extent – at least the prevelent metaphysics of the day) Barth ends up dialectically reflecting what he seeks to overcome?
