Karl Barth/Rudolph Bultmann Letters, 1922-1966
Harvey, Van A.
The depths of theology & friendship KARL CARTH/RUDOLPH BULTMANN LETTERS, 1922-1966 Edited by Bernd Jaspert, translated & edited by Geoffrey W. Bromily Eerdmans, $13.95, 192 pp. Van A....
...the Concordat between Prussia and the Evangelical Churches in 1931...
...It seems to be Bultmann who is the more concerned for Barth's approval and friendship...
...Or was it somehow a function of that now departed old world gentility in which, after forty-five years of what would pass for intimacy in modern America, these two intellectual giants would still address one another as "Mr...
...The early letters are filled with the connivings of the "young turks" who are resolved to overturn the Liberal establishment - there is a delightful plot to sneak Heidegger unannounced into a meeting with Hirsch - and with attempts by Bultmann to get Barth to discuss their fundamental theological differences...
...Van A. Harvey THESE letters would be extraordinary even had they not been written by the two great theologians who represent the polar extremes - and possibilities - of Protestant dialectical theology: extraordinary not only for what they tell us about the origins of the most important theological movement in our century, but also for what they reveal about the possibilities of depth in friendship itself...
...Barth, in turn, responded with a letter about half as long...
...The reader, remembering D.H...
...The most extensive theological exchange occurred in 1952 over Barth's monograph "Rudolf Bultmann: An Attempt to Understand Him...
...and, above all, Barth's decision not to come to Marburg for a discussion with Bultmann's group - a decision Bultmann regarded as "unfriendly" and which Barth justified by his dislike at being "examined" by Bultmann's students "with a mixture of fatherly kindness and policelike acuteness . . ." Bultmann cannot understand Barth's lack of concern for discussion and debate...
...and made out that the resultant mixture was the finally discovered theological elixir, as which it was merrily consumed by thousands and thousands of buyers.'' He then reminds Bultmann of a nativity scene by Botticelli he has just seen in which two old gentlemen are joyously smiling at one another and Barth writes: "In spite of Woolwich, let us be like these two...
...Bultmann, characteristically, replies with an enormous letter (sixteen pages in the English translation) patiently taking up Barth's objections one by one...
...Each of them does clever things with quotations from Mozart's operas - old world intellectuality at its most urbane...
...They could criticize each other's work, express annoyance at rumors of criticisms they had heard, even convey a sense of personal grief at what could be seen as personal distrust (Barth while a guest in Bultmann's home confessed that he had expected his friend to become a German Christian) or professional disrespect (Barth once sent back two sermons Bultmann had submitted to Barth's journal, Theologische Existent, with the judgment that the sermons were not good ones...
...In my opinion, it is probable that there are many of Barth's letters missing because of the delightfully casual way Bultmann filed letters from those of his friends who were authors: he interleafed the letters between the pages of their books he owned...
...God only knows how many priceless autographs are now framed on the walls of private German homes or, what is perhaps also possible, were thrown away because they were "just old letters...
...Barth" and omit the "Du" form...
...The penultimate letter, (1963) in which Barth thanks Bultmann for sending him an offprint of Bultmann's essay that discusses Honest to God, epitomizes the wit and the grace characteristic of the relationship between the two men: "Ponder this, I usually reject this book with Schiller as a 'document of the scandal of our times' and compare its origin to the act of a man who went and drew off the froth from three full glasses of beer (with the inscriptions R.B., P.T., and D.B...
...Bultmann and Barth first met in Marburg in 1908 and became better acquainted at meetings in the home of Martin Rade...
...He closes by asking if it is true that his old friend is not well, and he wishes him the best "in recollection of the 'beginnings of the dialectical theology...
...Even though each of these two men possessed enormous intellects that were fused to very different sensibilities, and even though each of them had every all-too-human reason to be jealous of the other (quite apart from the subtle temptation religious faith holds for those in its service to think this service justifies setting aside the ordinary obligations of civility), they were able to deal with one another with utter candor, humility, and graciousness...
...The editors note that the gaps in the correspondence may be explained by the fact that the two continually met for discussion in the early years and even after Barth went to Basle in 1935...
...This correspondence begins in 1922 with a brief letter from Bultmann to Barth telling him that he had reviewed "your Romans," thanking him for writing it and expressing hope for a more intensive exchange...
...and autobiographical statements from Barth and Bultmann...
...It ends in May, 1966 with a brief greeting from "ancient Marburg" on the occasion of Barth's eightieth birthday: "From the depths of his heart your old friend wishes you good health and good courage for the new year of your life...
...Lawrence's observation in Lady Chatterley's Lover that the academic world is built on spite, can only ask: Is such a largeness of spirit even possible today...
...Bultmann" and "Mr...
...After 1939, of course, there was the war...
...Barth's letter to Bishop Wurm (1947) explaining why it was a bad idea to institute heresy proceedings against Bultmann...
...Barth, in turn, sees no reason to have a debate with "philosophy...
...To these the editors have added forty most interesting documents, including among others, Barth's letters to von Soden (1934) explaining why he felt morally obligated to add the qualifying clause to the required Hitler oath (for which Barth was fired from Bonn...
...It is these letters in 1931 that are the most revealing of the differences in sensibility and theology that separated the two men...
...In between are some-sixty or so letters and-postcards from Bultmann to Barth and about thirty-five of the same from Barth to Bultmann...
...Regrettably the translator has decided to paraphrase a few of those he regarded as insubstantial...
...Thus, when he sold his splendid library late in life to a newly founded German university, student readers who checked these books out were astounded to find the most important letters fluttering out of volumes such as Schweitzer's Quest or Buber's I And Thou...
...nevertheless, they never failed to be kind, respectful, and forgiving...
...Gradually, extreme intellectual and personal tensions arose over a number of issues important to them both: Bultmann's review of the Dogmatics...
...Please write and do not regard me as unteachable," he asks...
Vol. 109 • May 1982 • No. 10
