Freedom and Flourishing: Being Act and Knowledge in Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics

Freedom is vital both to Karl Barths theology and to modern religion politics and culture. Leigh describes how Barths lifelong fascination by freedom culminated in a fresh daring engagement with it in his last completed book volume IV/3 of the massive Church Dogmatics--which is probably the most important work of Christian theology in the twentieth century. That volume builds on Barths earlier work but also goes beyond it in ways that have not yet been appreciated. Leigh shows how this mature theology of Barth not only responds profoundly to key questions about freedom both in philosophy and theology but also opens up a rich habitable understanding of Jesus Christ and of life in relationship with him that is prophetic for the twenty-first century. This involves a dynamic integration of knowing with being being with action truth with witness individual with community and divine initiative with human flourishing. At the heart of this life with God is participation in the asymmetrical yet utterly reciprocal interaction between human beings and the God who loves them in freedom. Leigh succeeds both in describing this participation convincingly and in demonstrating its provocative attractiveness. In this insightful study Robert Leigh sheds fresh light on the conception of divine freedom and human freedom in the work of Karl Barth. Drawing on the hitherto under-explored resources of Church Dogmatics IV/3 Leigh sets forth an actualistic and participative theology of freedom that sets aside any abstract disjunction of God and humanity in favor of attesting their gracious covenant relation in Jesus Christ. This is a book as rewarding as it is compelling. -- Paul T. Nimmo Kings Chair of Systematic Theology Robert Leigh completed his undergraduate degree in divinity at the University of Edinburgh and his doctoral studies at Selwyn College University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor David F. Ford. He is Head of Religion and Philosophy at Highgate School in London.