Karl Barth’s address “The Gift of Freedom” (in the collection that includes The Humanity of God) summarizes Barth’s concept of “freedom” and the responsibilities and capacities of a “free theologian.”
“Human freedom,” Barth says, “is the God-given freedom to obey. Faith is the obedience of the pilgrim who has his vision and his trust set upon God’s free act of reconciliation.” Barth emphasizes the “pilgrim” nature of obedience because God’s commands are not static: “[t]he question of good and evil is never answered by man’s pointing to the authoritative Word of God in terms of a set of rules . . . . Holy Scripture defies being forced into a set of rules; it is a mistake to use it as such.” Rather, “[e]thics is a reflection upon what man is required to do in and with the gift of freedom.”
Barth says the title “theologian” is “meant for every Christian who is mindful of the theological task entrusted to the whole Christian congregation, and who is willing and able to share in the common endeavor according to his own talents.” The characteristics of the “free” theologian, Barth, says, are these:
(1) A free theologian . . . will be found ready, willing, and able always to begin his thinking at the beginning. . . .
(2) A free theologian starts steadily and happily with the Bible. . . .
(3) A free theologian does not deny, nor is he ashamed of, his indebtedness to a particular philosophy or ontology, to ways of thought and speech. . . .
(4) A free theologian thinks and speaks within the Church, within the communion of saints, whose ordinary members happen to be not just he and his closest friends. . . .
(5) A free theologian works in communication with other theologians. . . .
Principle (3) sounds rather un-Barthian. But, Barth suggests, the free theologian “is a philosopher ‘as though he were not,’ and he has his ontology ‘as though he had it not.'” The free theologian’s “ontology will be subject to criticism and control by his theology, and not conversely.”
This little address from Barth reminds us that theology is a creative, dynamic discipline, but that its creativity and dynamism is rooted in the Church’s gratitude for our reconciliation with the living, Triune God.