{"id":11862,"date":"2018-09-20T07:50:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T11:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/?p=11862"},"modified":"2018-09-20T07:51:04","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T11:51:04","slug":"markus-barth-conference-at-princeton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/euangelion\/2018\/09\/markus-barth-conference-at-princeton\/","title":{"rendered":"Markus Barth Conference at Princeton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I only just now heard that Princeton Seminary is hosting a 2018 Markus Barth Symposium<\/a> on 27-28 Sept 2018 (so like, in a week!). So so wish I was going!<\/p>\n

Markus Barth<\/a> was the son of the famous Swiss theologian Karl Barth.\u00a0Markus Barth (b. October 6, 1915 \u2013 d. July 1, 1994) studied Protestant theology in Bern, Basel, Berlin, and Edinburgh. From 1940 to 1953, he was pastor in Bubendorf near Basel. In 1947 he received a doctorate in New Testament from the University of G\u00f6ttingen. Between 1953 and 1972 he held professorships in New Testament at theological schools in Dubuque (Iowa), Chicago, and Pittsburgh. From 1973 to 1985 he was professor of New Testament in Basel.<\/p>\n

Interesting fact, Markus Barth\u2019s first publication was: \u201cDie Gestapo gegen die Bekenntniskirche,\u201d\u00a0BN\u00a0June 19-20 (1937). Heck of a topic to start your publishing career on!!!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve really enjoyed and benefitted from Markus Barth\u2019s many works over the years.<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>, he wrote significant\u00a0works on sacramental theology, or I should say, anti-sacramental theology, since he changed his father\u2019s view on baptism to believer\u2019s baptism.<\/p>\n

You can get his book on the Last Supper from Wipf & Stock fairly cheaply.<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>, the theology of the Pauline epistles, including three major commentaries: Ephesians (1974), Colossians (1994), and Philemon (2000, posthumously). One of the few European scholars who thinks that Paul really did write Ephesians.<\/p>\n

His volume on resurrection with Verne H. Fletcher,\u00a0Acquittal by Resurrection\u00a0<\/em>(New York: Holt, Rinehard and Winston, 1964) was very important for me in my early days in Pauline studies:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legal ground of justification \u2013 and the reason to praise God as the justifier of the wicked lies in Jesus Christ exclusively . . . It lies in his death and resurrection, not in his teaching, or in our obedience to it. Man\u2019s faith has a part in that legal ground only in as much as it is faith in Jesus Christ.\u201d (p. 94)<\/p>\n

In his book on justification, he wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Justified by faith\u2019 means, accordingly, tried by the faithful God, sentenced conformably to the appearance, death, and rising of the obedient and loving Son, acquitted and set free in a manner identical with new creation and recognizably only with rejoicing and thanksgiving. God\u2019s faith, the faith of Jesus Christ, and man\u2019s answer in faith are \u2013 each in its own way \u2013 the means by which the righteousness and life are given to the community of sinful Jews and Gentiles. It is true: man is justified\u00a0sola fide, by faith alone But this saving faith is much more than a mere existential posture and response of man. Faith is first of all the characteristic and gift of God and his Son. Built on the faithfulness of the Judge and the Advocate, the human trust and faithfulness toward God stand on firm ground. There is no other requisite or means of justification beyond this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Markus Barth was also way ahead of the curve on things like the\u00a0pistis christou<\/em> debate where he championed the reading of the subjective genitive long before it was fashionable in his article\u00a0 Markus Barth,\u00a0\u201cThe Faith of the Messiah.\u201d\u00a0Heythrop Journal<\/em>. 10:4 (1969) 363-370.<\/p>\n

Third<\/strong>, the Jewish-Christian dialogue, which for him included reflection about religious as well as political matters, for example, the theological importance of Judaism for Christianity (and vice versa) or the achievements and failures of Zionism. Two of his writings on this subject are: \u201cIsrael and the Church\u201d (1969) and \u201cThe People of God\u201d (1983).<\/p>\n

He wrote a little known but thought-provoking article: \u201cJews and Gentiles: The Social Character of Justification in Paul,\u201d\u00a0Journal of Ecumenical Studies<\/em>\u00a05 (1968): 241-67 which really did pave the way for the NPP. So Markus Barth, yes a Barthian, anticipated the New Perspective years before Sanders or Dunn. Read this quote:<\/p>\n

\u201cA careful analysis of Galatians 2:15-21 indicates that no one can claim God\u2019s justice for himself \u2013 God\u2019s impartial judgment through the death of Jesus Christ involves Jews and Gentiles. Justification is a social event.<\/em> It ties man to man together. Justification by works would segregate men because each person selects his own arbitrary criterion of good works. Justification by grace, however, brings people together in reconciliation, even those of alien background, like the Jews and Gentiles.\u201d (p. 241)<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Paul one\u2019s justification is closely related to the question of Jewish-Gentile unity.\u201d (p. 242)<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the two themes, justification by faith and unity of Jew and Gentile in Christ, are for him obviously not only inseparable but in the last analysis identical.\u201d (p. 258)<\/p>\n

\u201cSharing in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the means of justification: only in Christ\u2019s death and resurrection is the new man created. But this new man is not any individual, this one or that one: he is created from at least two: a Jew and a Greek, a man and a woman, a slave and a free man, etc.\u201d (p. 259).<\/p>\n

The 1995 issue of\u00a0Horizons in Biblical Theology<\/em>\u00a0was dedicated to Markus Barth and includes several articles interacting with his work and, importantly, includes a reflective piece by Donald E. Gowan, \u201cIn Memory of Markus Barth: A Personal Note\u201d. Several quotes from Gowan stand out:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cOne of the advantages of having Markus Barth as one\u2019s model teacher is that his style was so unique that it was impossible to imitate him, as other students have tried to imitate the styles of their favourite teachers. One had to develop one\u2019s own style, with the aim of making a similar impression on one\u2019s students: namely the impression made by Markus\u2019 commitment to Scripture as the Word of God, his dedication to thoroughness, and his obvious joy in discovering new things in Scripture. I sometimes tell my classes how he answered a student\u2019s question at Dubuque as to why he did not open his classes with prayer: He said he made no sharp distinction between his exegetical work and his prayer life\u201d.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cThe quiet, gentleman was also in truth a daunting person, for he expected us to work.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cAt the Divinity School [i.e. Chicago], he represented a challenge to the old, Chicago liberalism for which that school was famous The Divinity School News reported on a congenial, but vigorous discussion between Barth and Bernard Loomer, an advocate of process theology \u2026 the significance of Markus\u2019 appointment to the Divinity School was emphasized by one student\u2019s blunt question: \u2018Why did the school appoint Dr. Markus Barth to this faculty?'\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cDuring my first year there, the Biblical Colloquium involved graduate students and Bible faculty in a year-long study of Romans, and the exchanges between Barth and Robert Grant, who represented significantly different approaches to interpretation, offered young scholars a great learning experience. The open forums at his home that year were no less stimulating; we worked our way through Bultmann\u2019s\u00a0New Testament Theology\u00a0during those evenings.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Another article by Charles Dickinson, \u201cMarkus Barth and Biblical Theology: A Personal Re-View\u201d is no less entertaining than Gowan\u2019s article.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cAfter breaking a lance with the Bultmannians [Kasemann\u2019s review of Barth\u2019s doctoral dissertation\u00a0Der Augenzeuge\u00a0was savage]; serving a pastorate in Bubendorf, Switzerland; and publishing a tome on baptism, Markus was called to teach New Testament at Dubuque, Iowa; at the University of Chicago; at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary; and finally to succeed Oscar Cullmann in his beloved hometown of Basel, Switzerland. It was in Chicago in 1962\/63 that something of a theological\u00a0parousia\u00a0occurred in my own life, when not only did Markus Barth \u2013 primarily through his weekly theological evenings \u2018at home\u2019 \u2013 become my own mentor, advisor, and \u2018spiritual father,\u2019 but Karl Barth himself came to the University of Chicago in 1962 to deliver the lectures which became the beginning of\u00a0Evangelical Theology: An Introduction<\/em>\u00a0and to speak with us students at Markus\u2019 \u2018at-home\u2019 that week\u201d.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Some lectures by Markus Barth are\u00a0online\u00a0<\/a>thanks to Matt Montinini. In one of them, he recollects chastizing Billy Graham on the grounds:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhy do you speak 10 minutes about the Bible and 40 minutes about the altar call? We\u2019d like to hear a bit more gospel and a little less method.\u201d<\/div>\n

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I only just now heard that Princeton Seminary is hosting a 2018 Markus Barth Symposium on 27-28 Sept 2018 (so like, in a week!). So so wish I was going! Markus Barth was the son of the famous Swiss theologian Karl Barth.\u00a0Markus Barth (b. October 6, 1915 \u2013 d. July 1, 1994) studied Protestant theology […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":11865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMarkus Barth Conference at Princeton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I only just now heard that Princeton Seminary is hosting a 2018 Markus Barth Symposium on 27-28 Sept 2018 (so like, in a week!). 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