This thesis seeks to contribute to scholarship on the great Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, and to the ongoing discussion of theology and politics by examining Barth's view of war. / There has so far been only one monograph on Barth's view of war: John Howard Yoder's Karl Barth and the Problem of War (1970). Whereas Yoder's work is restricted to Barth's general discussion of war in his Church Dogmatics, and to a partial glance at his response to World War Two (WWII) and the Cold War, this thesis expands and completes the picture by examining Barths, overall theo-ethical framework, and his attitude to World War I. / Pushing a little further into Barth's theology, I start by re-evaluating the significance of Barth's key ethical concept of the Grenzfall ('extreme case')---particularly his use of it in relation to the problem of war. Briefly, rather than being a 'cop-out' clause (Yoder's thesis), the Grenzfall serves as a descriptive, conceptual short-hand for Barth's contextually-engaged, prophetic stance with regard to war. This is shown most clearly in his responses in word and deed to World War One (WWI---ignored by Yoder), WWII and the Cold War. / Following my examination of the Grenzfall, I chart Barth's path through these three situations: No substantial work has previously been done on Barth's response to WWI, largely because much of it is articulated in a series of sermons which have not yet been translated. Uncovering Barth's thought in these sermons---hitherto largely ignored in both dogmatic and ethical scholarship---I compare Barth's early, middle and later responses to concrete, historical wars, and relate these to his use of the Grenzfall in the ethical discussion of his Dogmatics.

No description available.