Covering Up Luther: How Barth's Christology Challenged the Deus Absconditus That Haunts Modernity: 9 (Veritas)

Karl Barths Christology provides a key to out-narrating the Deus absconditus which as Rustin Brian contends is in fact the god of modernity. Included in this is the rejection of the logical and philosophical systems that allow for the modern understanding of God as the Deus absconditus namely dialectics and nominalism. This rejection is illustrated interestingly enough in Barths decision to literally cover up with a rug Martin Luthers works in his personal library. Surely this was more than a decorative touch. The reading of Barths works that results from this starting point challenges much of contemporary Barth scholarship and urges readers to reconsider Barth. Through careful examination of a large body of Barths writings particularly in regard to the issues of the knowledge or knowability of God as well as Christology Brian argues that contemporary Barth scholarship should be done in careful conversation with the finest examples of both Protestant and especially Roman Catholic theology. Barths paradoxical Christology thus becomes the foundation for a dogmatic ecumenicism. Barths Christology then just might be able to open up possibilities for discussion and even convergence within a church that is anything but one. This book is a significant contribution to the lively conversation between Christian theology and postmodernity. Perhaps Brians most trenchant insight is that Karl Barths quarrel with Martin Luther in regards to the Deus absconditus parallels postmodernitys critique of typically modern conceptions of God entertained by believers and non-believers alike. Thus the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century shows the path toward dialogue with the dominant cultural form of the twenty-first century. Brians text is lively provocative well-written and compellingly argued. --Robert Barron author of The Priority of Christ Rather than accepting well-worn interpretations of Barth (and Luther) Brian breaks fresh ground with a provocative--and for that reason all the more interesting--interpretation. Barth was not a dialectical theologian indebted to a Lutheran Deus absconditus. Instead he was a theologian of the glorious paradox of the fullness of God present in Christ. . . . Brians book marks an important contribution for a new direction in Barth studies. --D. Stephen Long author of Keeping Faith In this ecumenically important book Brian argues that Karl Barth is best regarded as a transitional figure who crucially helped open up the current post-Protestant era in theology by breaking with the tropes of nominalism and voluntarism which had imprisoned the mainline Reformation and distorted their grasp of orthodox Christology. He makes a convincing case that requires to be taken seriously. --John Milbank author of Being Reconciled Rustin E. Brian is an ordained Pastor in the Church of the Nazarene currently pastoring Renton Church of the Nazarene in Renton WA and Adjunct Professor of Theology at Northwest Nazarene University and Seattle Pacific University. He is the author of Covering Up Luther: How Barths Christology Challenged the Deus Absconditus that Haunts Modernity (2013).