Romans Rabbit Trail #1 -- The Dialectic of Faith

I first read an excerpt of Karl Barth's The Epistle to the Romans when working on my undergraduate degree in theology thirty years ago. I suppose I struggled with a ten page section of text dealing with the first few verses of the fifth chapter of Romans for hours...and I still wasn't sure I understood exactly what Barth was talking about.

But I did understand that a part of his theological project was to reintroduce his early 20th century readers to an understanding of salvation that was simultaneously possible and impossible. In his theological commentary on Paul's letter to the Romans, Barth takes up the task of hammering home a theological conundrum -- faith is not a given...but faith is a gift.

Baldly stated, faith is God's initiative alone.

This statement strikes at the heart of our Western assumption of "personal agency" -- our practical deification of the human self by its own merit. The notion that "faith" comes from somewhere (and Someone) other than ourselves threatens our individualism, offends our sancrosanct belief in "free will", and reminds us of our powerlessness to effect for ourselves salvation (wholeness) from within ourselves.

In his comments on Romans 5:1 ("Therefore being justified by faith..."), Barth writes, "In the moment we dare to say we believe, we remain always under suspicion. The necessity of passing through the narrow gate which leads from life to death and from death to life must remain always a sheer impossibility and a sheer necessity...It is dangerous for us to take even one step forward...the point where faith and unbelief part company can be defined neither psychologically nor historically." (p. 130)

Faith as a dangerous step forward? Who knew?

Barth questioned the "comfortable and easy manner" (p. 130) with which the church of his day engaged the doctrine of salvation -- that salvation was effected through our human response to the Gospel, that human "faith" somehow sealed the deal. For Barth, to say that salvation depended upon a human decision was the epitome of human arrogance. Such an individualized understanding of faith was to appropriate a saving power to the creature that belongs to the Creator alone.

Barth rejected an anthropological starting point in his discussions of faith. Faith, saving faith, life-giving faith, is not stirred up from within ourselves...in fact, only in admitting the impossibility of generating faith on our own volition are we open to the possibility of receiving it from a sovereign God.

Barth writes, "...God justifies Himself in our presence, and thereby we are justified in His presence. By making us His prisoners, He sets us free; by rejecting us as we are, He affirms us to be what we are not; He takes our side and uses us for His purpose, and thereby His side becomes our side. His right our right, and His good work is begun in us. He acknowledges us, and is with us. He promises us salvation in His Kingdom. By hope we are His. Thus the new subject emerges in the negation of the old, known human subject; and by the invisible and personal action of God human personality is fashioned." (p. 130)