Karl Barth |
Unfortunately, the English translation of the Declaration that occurs in Arthur C. Cochrane's book, The Church's Confession under Hitler (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962; pp. 237-42), is not entirely accurate. The online reproduction of that translation (http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/barmen.htm) also includes material that was not originally a part of the Declaration itself, and it omits some material.
I have therefore attempted a translation of the Declaration myself and include it below as this week's "pericope." My translation is based on the seventh German edition: Martin Heimbucher and Rudolf Weth, eds., Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung: Einführung und Kokumentation, foreword by Wolfgang Huber (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2009), 33-43.
If anyone has suggestions for improving my translation, please feel free to share them with me.
Edmund Schlink |
Theological Declaration concerning the Present
Situation of the German
Protestant Church
According
to the opening words of its meeting on July 11, 1933, the German Protestant
Church is a
federation of confessional churches which grew out of the Reformation and which
have equal rights beside one another. The theological presupposition of
the unity of these churches is given in Articles 1 and 2.1 of the Constitution
of the German Protestant Church,
which were recognized by the national government on July 14, 1933:
Article 1: The inviolable basis of
the German Protestant Church
is the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is attested for us in Holy Scripture and
brought to light anew in the confessions of the Reformation. Hereby the full
power and authority which the church needs for its mission are determined and
delimited.
Article 2.1: The German Protestant
Church is comprised
of churches (state churches).
We, the
unified representatives of Lutheran, Reformed, and United churches, free
synods, church congresses, and congregational organizations at the confessing
synod of the German Protestant Church
declare that we stand together on the basis of the German Protestant
Church as a
federation of German confessional churches. Thereby the confession of the one
Lord of the one, holy, universal, and apostolic church binds us together.
We publicly
declare before all of the Protestant churches in Germany
that the common element in this confession is severely endangered, as is the
unity of the German Protestant Church. It is threatened by the teaching methods and
actions of the ruling church party of "German Christians" and the
church government undertaken by them. These methods and actions have become
more and more visible in the first year of the existence of the German Protestant
Church. This threat
consists in this, namely, that the theological presupposition, in which the German Protestant
Church is united, has
been continuously and fundamentally thwarted and made ineffective by foreign
presuppositions, both on the part of the leader and speaker of the German
Christians and by the church government. When these presuppositions are held to
be valid, the church ceases to be the church, according to all of the
confessions in force among us. Likewise, as a result of this, the German Protestant
Church is
intrinsically impossible as a federation of confessional churches.
As
members of Lutheran, Reformed, and United churches we may and must speak
together today about this matter. Precisely because we want to be true and
remain true to our diverse confessions, we may not keep silent since we believe
that in a time of common emergency and crisis it is fitting for us to speak a
common word. We commend to God what this may mean for the relationship of the
confessional churches to one another.
In
view of the errors of the German Christians and the present government of the
national church, which are desolating the church and thus also the unity of the
German Protestant Church,
we confess the following evangelical-Protestant truths:
1. "I am the way and the truth and the
life; no one comes to the Father but through me" (John 14:6). "Truly, truly I say to you:
he who does not enter into the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way, he is
a thief and a murderer. I am the gate; if anyone enters by me, he will be blessed" (John 10:1, 9).
Jesus Christ, as he
is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one word of God that we are to
hear, which we are to trust and to obey in life and in death.
We reject the false doctrine, as if the
church can and must recognize as sources for its preaching, apart from and
beside this one word of God, also other events and powers, figures and truths
as God's revelation.
2. "God made Jesus Christ to be for us our
wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30).
Just as Jesus
Christ is God's assurance [Zuspruch] of the forgiveness of all our sins, so also, and with the same earnestness, he
is God's powerful claim [Anspruch] upon our entire life. Through him a joyous liberation from the godless
conditions of this world occurs for us, a liberation for free, grateful service
to his creatures.
We reject the false doctrine, as if there
are domains of our life in which we do not belong to Jesus Christ but to other
lords, domains in which we would not need justification and sanctification by
him.
3. "But let us be upright in love and grow
in every respect into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body is joined
together" (Eph. 4:15-16).
The Christian
church is the congregation of brothers in which Jesus Christ acts presently as
the Lord in word and sacrament through the Holy Spirit. As the church of
forgiven sinners, it has to testify in the midst of the world of sinners, both
with its faith and its obedience, with its message as well as with its order,
that it alone is his property, that it lives and wants to live solely from his
comfort and by his direction in anticipation of his appearance.
We reject the false doctrine, as if the
church could relinquish the form of its message and its order to its own
pleasure or to changes in prevailing ideological and political convictions.
4. "You know that the worldly rulers lord
over others and the chief lords have power. It shall not be so among you; but
if anyone wants to be great among
you, let him be your servant" (Matt. 20:25-26).
The various offices in the church
do not establish any lordship of one over the others, but the exercise of the
ministry is commanded and entrusted to the whole congregation.
We
reject the false doctrine, as if the church, apart from this ministry, could
give itself and allow itself to be given over to special leaders who are vested
with ruling powers.
5. "Fear God, honor the king" (1
Pet. 2:17).
Scripture says to us that the
State, according to divine arrangement, has the task to be concerned for
justice and peace in this still unredeemed world in which the church also
stands, and to do so according to the standard of human insight and human
ability, under penalty of threat and the use of force. In gratitude and
reverence toward God, the church recognizes the benefit of this, his
arrangement. The church reminds itself of God's kingdom, of God's command and
justice, and thereby, of the responsibility of those governing and of the
governed. It trusts and obeys the power of the word by which God upholds all
things.
We
reject the false doctrine, as if the state, beyond its special task, should and
could become the single and total order of human life and thereby fulfill also
the intended purpose of the church.
We
reject the false doctrine, as if the church, beyond its special task, should
and could take over state-governmental actions, state-governmental tasks, and
state-governmental positions and thereby become itself an organ of the state.
6. "See, I am with you every day until
the end of the world" (Matt. 28:20).
"God's word is not bound" (2
Tim. 2:9).
The task of the church, in which
its freedom is grounded, consists in this, namely, to pass on the message of
the freeing grace of God to every nation, in the place of Christ and thus in
service to his own word and work through sermon and sacrament.
We
reject the false doctrine, as if the church, in human arrogance, could place
the word and work of the Lord in service to any arbitrarily-chosen wishes,
goals, and plans.
The
confessing synod of the German Protestant Church
declares that it sees in the acknowledgement of these truths and in the
rejection of these errors the indispensable theological foundation of the German Protestant
Church as a
federation of confessional churches. It invites all who are able to agree with
its declaration to keep in mind these theological judgments in their
church-political decisions. It requests all whom it concerns to return to the
unity of faith, love, and hope.
Verbum Dei manet in aeternum. [The word of God remains to
eternity.]
The Barmen Declaration as Barth would have it seems stuck in a pietism of sorts. The refusal to sign the document by some Lutheran theologians was a direct answer of "No" to Barth's way of conceiving God operative in history. Why was Barth's theology so confined to Jesus Christ as the only Word of God when it is clear even from Scripture and not just "the book of nature" that the hidden God of Luther in terms of general machinations of history and individual fate are also a revelation that must be dealt with?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the accurate translation!