The Social Ontology of Karl Barth

The theme of the "Other" dominates post-Cartesian thinking. Specifically, what is the relation of the knowing subject to the Other (who is neither object nor alter ego) , if both self and Other are supposed to be counterparts and partners--a Thou meeting the other's I--and if each exceeds the other's experience? Twentieth-century theology, too, has reconsidered the Cartesian basal subject from which the existence of others and God proceeds. Karl Barth (1886-1968) is a major representative of one approach to this theme. Throughout his theological career Barth tries to overcome a subject-centered theology wherein God is not allowed to appear as God and wherein the claim of the human Other goes unheeded. In Barth's earliest theology, the believer's subjectivity is the locus for God's otherness yet the claim of the Other is said to lodge in God's kingdom as manifested in social democracy. During his "dialectical" period, Barth rejects cultural and social norms, as well as the objectification of God, so that he may affirm the total divine otherness and the divine freedom to speak the Word. In the Church Dogmatics, Barth locates God's otherness in God's triune being, the divine self-correspondence and the divine correspondence to human beings. Human otherness is defined in terms of the human being's being-determined as covenant partner with God and being-for and being-with others in analogous correspondence to the divine self-othering in Christ. During all of Barth's theological periods, otherness is grounded in the unique otherness of Christ, so that the conditions of subjectivity and intersubjectivity alike are grounded in the Incarnation. Stroble suggests lines of dialogue between Barth's theology and postmodern thought, showing paths for future theological reflection.