Karl Barth

Reinhold Niebuhr and Karl Barth lived remarkably parallel lives. Both became disillusioned with the nineteenth-century Protestant liberalism they had inherited, but they took their departure from liberalism in different directions. Niebuhr’s focus on social ethics gave him an interest in the ethical implications of Barth’s theology, but Barth’s approach to dogmatics led him to be less interested in Niebuhr’s approach to ethics and apologetic theology. Commentators have often assumed that Niebuhr and Barth were engaged in answering a common question, such that we could adjudicate who was right and who was wrong, but the relationship between their projects is more complicated. Niebuhr focused on immanent criticism of the dogmas of a secular age, seeking to demonstrate how these ways of thinking could not sufficiently account for the challenges and aspirations of human nature and destiny. Eschewing this apologetic approach, Barth pursued the task of dogmatics as a human response to God’s revelation and as an ongoing test of the Church’s proclamation. Niebuhr and Barth were engaged in differing projects, which because of their distinct goals, can be seen as complementary.

Liberals, Modernists, and Others: A Response

My thanks to Maria Doerfler for organizing a session at the January 2020 meeting of the American Society of Church History on my book The Fathers Refounded: Protestant Liberalism, Roman Catholic Modernism, and the Teaching of Ancient Christianity in Early Twentieth-Century America, to the editors of Church History for suggesting that the (revised) papers from the session could find a home in print, and, especially, to the panelists for their insightful comments.

Forum on Elizabeth A. Clark's The Fathers Refounded: Protestant Liberalism, Roman Catholic Modernism, and the Teaching of Ancient Christianity in Early Twentieth-Century America: Introductory Remarks

The turn of the twentieth century represents an incisive moment in religious thought and theological education. Scholars across Europe and North America were wrestling with the twin influences of Protestant Liberalism and Roman Catholic Modernism, the questions they raised for how to conceive of the origins of Christianity, and how to make them palatable to a rapidly changing world. In her most recent monograph, The Fathers Refounded: Protestant Liberalism, Roman Catholic Modernism, and the Teaching of Ancient Christianity in Early Twentieth-Century America, Elizabeth A. Clark explores these questions in the lives and work of three of the era's most influential figures. Her work stands at the center of this forum, with four distinguished scholars considering its implications.

A Plot of Possibilities: Elizabeth Clark's The Fathers Refounded

Elizabeth A. Clark's immensely learned new book, The Fathers Refounded: Protestant Liberalism, Roman Catholic Modernism, and the Teaching of Ancient Christianity in Early Twentieth-Century America, which follows directly on her examination of the nineteenth century in Founding the Fathers: Early Church History and Protestant Professors in Nineteenth-Century America, is a joy to read and from which to learn about the histories of our discipline, the history of Christianity. Chiefly, the book documents, through in-depth study of three fascinating figures, the severance of the field of “church history” from “theology” and, in particular, its pivotal moments within Protestant and Catholic “modernism.”