Karl Barth's Moral Thought

✍ Scribed by Gerald McKenny

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Year: 2021
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 218
• Series: Oxford Studies in Theological Ethics
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Does theological ethics articulate moral norms with the assistance of moral philosophy? Or does it leave that task to moral philosophy alone while it describes a distinctively Christian way of acting or form of life? These questions lie at the very heart of theological ethics as a discipline.
Karl Barth's theological ethics makes a strong case for the first alternative. Karl Barth's Moral Thought follows Barth's efforts to present God's grace as a moral norm in his treatments of divine commands, moral reasoning, responsibility, and agency. It shows how Barth's conviction that grace is
the norm of human action generates problems for his ethics at nearly every turn, as it involves a moral good that confronts human beings from outside rather than perfecting them as the kind of creature they are. Yet it defends Barth's insistence on the right of theology to articulate moral norms,
and it shows how Barth may lead theological ethics to exercise that right in a more compelling way than he did.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Karl Barth’s Moral Thought
Copyright
Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
Abbreviations
1: Karl Barth’s Theological Ethics
The Subject Matter of Theological Ethics
God for Us
God’s Command as Requirement
Human Action as Correspondence to Grace
General and Special Ethics
Grace, Command, and Creation
Creation as External Ground of the Covenant
Covenant as Internal Ground of Creation
Summary
Conclusion
2: The Command of God as a Moral Norm
What Makes the Command of God a Moral Norm
Theological Ethics and Moral Philosophy
The Problem
Theological Ethics and Moral Philosophy in Conflict
Theological Ethics and Moral Philosophy in Conversation
Summary
Barth, Kant, and the Two Circles
Conclusion
Being the Answer and Giving the Answer
Explicit and Implicit Attestation
3: The Command of God as a Morally Binding Norm
The Command of God and Morally Good Action
God’s Goodness and Human Goodness
God’s Command as Both the Question of the Good and Its Answer
Summary
The Command of God as Morally Binding
False Grounds of Obligation
“God for Us” as the Ground of Obligation
Summary
Conclusion
4: The Continuity of God’s Commands
The Command of God as Event: General Ethics
The Command of God as Mandatum Concretissimum
The Formal Consistency of God’s Commands in General Ethics
The Command of God as History: Special Ethics
The Material Constancy of God’s Commands in Special Ethics
The Material Constancy of God’s Commands: The Determinate Spheres
The Microsphere of Life as a Test Case of Continuity
Summary
Conclusion
5: Hearing God’s Command
Knowledge of God’s Commands
Knowledge of God’s Command in Special Ethics
Knowledge of God’s Command in General Ethics
Summary
Rational Deliberation in the Encounter with God’s Command
Moral Reflection as Human Deliberation Coram Deo
Human Reasons and Divine Decisions
A Community of Mutual Address and Accountability
Conclusion
6: Responsibility and the Moral Subject
Responsibility: What and Why?
Responsibility in Barth’s Ethics and in Modern Ethics
Making Us Responsible by Taking Responsibility for Us
Responsibility and the Covenant of Grace
Three Determinations
God’s Responsibility and Ours
Accountability and the Imputability of Actions
The Priority of Accountability to Imputability
Imputability as Condition for Accountability
Liability and Its Limits
The Problem of Liability
Barth’s Limited Liability
Conclusion
7: Divine Action and Human Action
Stating the Problem
Human Action as the Agent’s Action
Divine Miracles and Creaturely Acts
The Interaction of Divine and Human Acts
The Continuity of Human Action
The Holy Spirit and the Continuity of Human Action
An Alternative to Virtue Ethics
A Fully Human Moral Agent
Divine and Human Action in the Covenant of Grace
Conclusion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index