Karl Barth. Paul S. Chung
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a revolutionary unrest, always moving forward, longing for something better in the future rather than being satisfied with what is offered by the world of relativities. What Barth discerned in socialism was this revolutionary unrest and disquiet revealed in longing for the future. However, Barth was aware of August Bebel’s mistake of supporting the military appropriations bill which had been passed by the Reichstag in the summer of 1913. This is what Naumann called Bebel’s “last will and testament.” Such compromises in the Social Democracy did not signify a fundamental change of socialist direction as Naumann had expected. As Barth states, “If the Social Democracy should be transformed into a radical reform party on the soil of capitalism and nationalism as Die Hilfe so much expects—we do not believe it—then that would be for us at most a new disappointment, as the politics of Die Hilfe is finally a disappointment for us, not, however, a proof that a politics which simply capitulates before certain alleged realities is the only possible, the correct politics. We should expect more from God.”136
What we discern in Barth’s review is a theology of radical socialism. There is a direction that has higher political faith, which is, by no means, satisfied with political and economic relativities. Although concessions and compromises are made, they are done in inner contrast to all temporality. Barth found this direction in International Social Democracy. Taking in earnest the ultimate, namely, God, politically, the Social Democracy sought to rewrite politics. This radical revolutionary socialism was based on the standpoint of the absolute, which is the genuine otherworldliness (Jenseits) of all social relativities; it is, in other words, the standpoint of God. This radical socialism that represents the standpoint of God takes a position that is not ready to establish peace with the reality of the present era, with capitalism, nationalism, and militarism.137
According to Barth, Die Hilfe had no understanding of the inner essence of Social Democracy, that is, of the revolutionary unrest, the radicalism, and the enthusiasm. Although Die Hilfe understood the industrial-democratic element, which was the whole reform apparatus in the social-democratic program, it shook its head at their unrealistic ideals. “‘Utopia,’ ‘fantasy,’ ‘outmoded Marxist dogma,’ or even ‘agitation talk’—that is the repertoire of their fight against the left.” The position of Die Hilfe against the left resorted to “placing this utopia and talk into a box, and placing ‘Gegenwartarbeit’ [‘present work’] arm in arm with decisive liberalism.”138
In April 1915, in wartime Germany, Barth went to Marburg with Thurneysen for the wedding of his brother Peter who married Rade’s daughter, Helene. At the wedding Barth had an opportunity to meet Rade’s father-in-law, Naumann. Barth engaged in a passionate discussion with him over the war. Naumann’s position on the war became obvious in his description of religion: “All religion is right for us . . . whether it is called the Salvation Army or Islam, provided that it helps us to hold out through the war.”139 Barth’s disappointment with him led Barth closer to Blumhardt. Barth’s subsequent comparison of Naumann and Blumhardt is evident in their obituary that Barth wrote in the year that the two died. I shall deal with Barth’s obituary on Naumann and Blumhardt in a later chapter on the Tambach lecture of 1919.
The radical-revolutionary hope of the working class was not merely political but theological for Barth. He arrived at this position because his concept of radical socialism came from the absolute God. “It is a religious difference, which separates the hope of the proletariat from the hope of the circle of Die Hilfe. Naumann does not understand this religious difference, and he levels it off to a mere political difference.”140 However, what is central to Barth’s position is well articulated in his understanding of hope: “in the midst of this world of relativities, to be incessantly disquieted and full of longing. To be fundamentally revolutionary against that which exists. To long after the better which will come, after the absolute goal of a human communal life beyond all temporal necessities.”141
Barth believed that the one who seeks faith in Jenseits of war and capitalism, as Die Hilfe does, seeks in vain. The hope and longing for the new and the better has its origin and telos outside Jenseits of all temporal necessities because this hope comes from God. Therefore accommodation to an existing reality or the status quo is perpetually challenged and discredited since we should expect more from God. In Die Hilfe Barth spoke of God in political relevance and developed his discourse of God in the context of social justice, revolution, socialism, and radicalism. Barth critically supported revolutionary leftist socialism before World War I and interpreted socialistic theory and praxis in light of his understanding of God, who is Jenseits of all temporal necessities. Thus Barth integrated socialistic theory and praxis into his theology. In other words, Barth attempted to see the “left” of socialism grounded in the “above” of God because he deepened and actualized God as the radically Novum in the context of a radically new society. As Danneman states, “In the bringing-in of the transcendence-thought (God and socialism as the Jenseits of the world of capitalism) lies the theology of Barth’s radical socialism.”142
Religious Socialism in Switzerland
Barth’s theology cannot be properly understood without reference to his socialistic activity and Swiss religious socialism. His “Socialist Speeches” and activity until the outbreak of World War I—as has been described above—are themselves reflective of liberal theology, especially when dealing with a relation between theology and political praxis. However, after the war he made a new departure by breaking with his liberal background. To further appreciate Barth’s theology and social praxis after the war, it is first necessary to look at the movement of religious socialism in Switzerland. For understanding the development of religious socialism in Switzerland, it is worthwhile to take note of a historical event beginning with Christoph F. Blumhardt (1842–1919). Although Blumhardt is not depicted as a religious socialist in an authentic sense, the movement of religious socialism in Switzerland has one point of departure in him. Representatives of Swiss religious socialism such as Kutter and Ragaz were strongly influenced by Christoph Blumhardt. Blumhardt, properly understood, is both an example and father of religious socialism in Switzerland. Ragaz, in his book Der Kampf um das Reich Gottes in Blumhardt, Vater und Sohn, und weiter! is full of honor and respect for Blumhardt.
Blumhardt is spiritually and theologically related to his father, Johann Christoph Blumhardt (1805–1880). In his parish at Moettlingen the elder Blumhardt was involved for two years in a process of healing a woman who suffered a high degree of hysteria as seen from a medical perspective. As she was healed, a voice sounded out: “Jesus is victor.” Thus, Jesus’s victory became the grounding principle for his healing work in light of the kingdom of God. For him, the kingdom of God had a strong cosmic and apocalyptic dimension rather than being confined to an individualistic and pietistic realm of salvation. The presently real quality of the kingdom of God was bound up with the incarnation of Jesus Christ. However, the reality of the kingdom of God was not restricted to the historical Jesus, but after the ascension the kingdom of God broke into the world in which the healing of a possessed woman was regarded as a sign of God’s in-breaking reality. What is important is that hope for the kingdom of God and the voice that said “Jesus is victor” was understood as an immanent concretization of God’s kingdom.
According to the elder Blumhardt, the kingdom of God is not shortened or reduced to a spiritual, otherworldly salvation of the soul but is sharpened in concrete-physical and social-material realms. This tendency to integrate the material arena and concrete content into the movement of God’s kingdom finds a strong expansion in the younger Blumhardt. In 1852 Johann Blumhardt moved from Moettlingen to the retreat house in Bad Boll.
After the death of his father, Blumbhardt placed a new accent on his father’s watchword, “Jesus is victor.” Beyond a healing ministry in Bad Boll, Blumbhardt made a radical turn to