Table of Contents and Summary of the Habilitation Thesis by Árpád Ferencz
The revised version is expected to be published in 2027/28 by Exit Publishing House in Cluj.
“The Holy Spirit, the Most Intimate Friend of Common Sense”
A Contribution to the Pneumatology of Karl Barth
Table of Contents
- Introduction and Clarification of the Problem
I. Historical Overview of the Question of Pneumatology
1.1. Pneumatology and Filioque as Question and Task
1.2. Outlook on Barth’s Doctrine of the Filioque and Its Role in Barth’s Dogmatic System
1.3. Some Consequences of Barth’s Doctrine of the Filioque
1.4. Excursus: Binitarianism in the Early Church
1.5. Contemporary Pneumatological Proposals
II. Placing the Subject in the Overall Context of Karl Barth’s Theology
2.1. Pneumatology in the Overall Context of Barth’s Theology
2.1.1. Ingrid Spieckermann’s Interpretation of Barth
2.1.2. Bruce L. McCormack’s Interpretation of Barth in the Context of North American Barth Research
2.1.3. Eberhard Busch’s Interpretation of Barth
Interim Assessment
III. Interpretations of Karl Barth’s Pneumatology
3.1. Christian Henning’s Interpretation
3.2. Dietrich Braun’s Interpretation
3.3. Philip J. Rosato’s Pneumatological Reconstruction
3.4. Reinhard Hütter’s Interpretation of Barth’s Pneumatology
Interim Assessment
IV. Karl Barth’s Pneumatology in CD IV
4.1. Content and Structure of Volume IV
4.1.1. Surface Grammar and Deep Grammar of CD IV
4.2. Pneumatological Lines of Argument in CD IV/1
Interim Assessment
V. The Decent Society: A Possibility between Utopia, Dream and Reality
5.1. The Postmodern Sense of Life
5.2. Religion and the Public Sphere in the Postsecular Age
5.2.1. Niklas Luhmann on the Public Sphere, Autopoietic Systems and Religion
5.2.2. Erik Peterson’s Eschatological-Pneumatological Concept of the Public Sphere
5.3. The Decent Society: Public Space, Dream, Utopia or Real Possibility?
5.4. The Space of the Church
Summary
Appendix
List of Abbreviations
Summary
Aims and Research Question
This study pursues a twofold aim. First, it reconstructs Karl Barth’s pneumatology as developed in the Church Dogmatics. Second, it examines the consequences of such a pneumatology for the understanding of the church, the congregation and its social responsibility under present-day conditions.
The study also asks to what extent Karl Barth’s theology remains viable in the context of so-called postmodernity. In an era marked by the erosion of comprehensive frameworks of meaning, the fragmentation of social interpretations of reality and the crisis of traditional forms of justification, theology faces the challenge of redefining its own contribution to society’s public self-understanding. Christian theology can meet this challenge only if it does not merely preserve its specific view of God, humanity and the world but also gives it public expression.
The starting point is the conviction that the potential of Christian theology lies essentially in its Trinitarian understanding of God. In the Christian tradition, the one God is understood as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This Trinitarian reality is not disclosed abstractly, however, but solely through the history of Jesus Christ. At the same time, participation in this history presupposes the work of the Holy Spirit. Only through the Spirit does the history of Jesus Christ become the history of human beings, and only through the Spirit are human beings taken up into communion with God.
Against this background, the Holy Spirit is understood not merely as the guarantor of God’s unavailability. Rather, the Spirit appears as the power that constitutes Christian existence, creates identity, makes community possible and opens up freedom. This aspect gains particular significance in a present often described as a crisis of identity and orientation.
If so-called postmodernity can be understood as an expression of a fundamental crisis of orientation and identity, then Christian theology offers a distinctive approach to the question of what it means to be human. The current debate about the subject shows that determining human identity has become increasingly problematic. In contrast, Karl Barth holds that human beings can be adequately understood only in their relationship to God. This gives theology the task of contributing to an understanding of the human person that does justice to human dignity and grasps human existence as a relational reality.
The study therefore asks to what extent Barth’s pneumatology can contribute to such an understanding. According to Barth, the distinctive character of Christian existence consists in being in relationship. This relational being is grounded and sustained by the history of God with human beings. The Holy Spirit works here as an identity-forming, connecting, constitutive and liberating power. The Spirit opens up to human beings the possibility of understanding their own history within the history of God and of finding their place within this comprehensive reality.
The study concludes that Barth’s pneumatology has particular relevance precisely under the conditions of the postmodern public sphere. It keeps open the possibility that human beings can participate in an ordered and meaningful history without giving up their individuality. In this sense, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit opens a perspective that can conceive both the freedom of the individual and his or her belonging to a larger community.
Methodological Considerations
Methodological questions have always been among the most demanding challenges of theological research. This also applies to the interpretation of Karl Barth’s theology. The study therefore proceeds from the assumption that there is no canonical, universally binding method for reading the Church Dogmatics.
The question is therefore: How is Karl Barth to be read?
This question recalls George Hunsinger’s attempt to develop an appropriate way of reading Barth’s theology. Nevertheless, the present study assumes that every interpretation necessarily remains perspectival. It is no coincidence that Kornelis Heiko Miskotte described his approaches to the Church Dogmatics as “Preludes and Fantasies.” This phrase aptly expresses the openness and mobility of Barth’s thought.
The Church Dogmatics can be understood as a multilayered work whose inner structure is determined less by static doctrinal statements than by a dynamic movement of thought. For this reason, the study focuses above all on the movement of theological thinking itself. The language, the formation of concepts and the structure of the Church Dogmatics cannot be converted into a rigid system. Rather, characteristic shifts of emphasis appear within the work, making the progress of theological reflection visible.
A reconstruction of Barth’s pneumatology therefore first requires a careful analysis of these shifts of emphasis. They are by no means accidental but mark decisive steps of development within the theological argument.
The thesis statements (Leitsätze) that open the individual paragraphs and chapters are also of particular importance. They form a highly complex yet remarkably coherent structure that offers important clues both to the construction of the Church Dogmatics and to the direction of its theological movement. The study of these statements thus proves to be an essential aid for reconstructing the pneumatology.
Significant observations can also be made at the level of the linguistic form of the texts. In the course of the Church Dogmatics, Barth’s language visibly changes. While the early parts are shaped more by a scholarly, analytical mode of expression, a doxological and prayerful form of language increasingly emerges in the later volumes. This development becomes especially clear in the volumes on the doctrine of reconciliation.
Another characteristic of Barth’s language is the recurring structure of indicative, imperative and vocative. These linguistic modes fulfil a specific theological function, each bringing out different aspects of Christian reality. This can be shown particularly clearly in CD IV/1, where the theological presuppositions of a pneumatology in the sense of the third article of the Creed become visible.
With the help of this methodological toolkit, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in CD IV/1 is reconstructed and analyzed in its systematic-theological connections. The results gained in this way are finally interpreted in the light of contemporary social questions and tested for their viability.
Structure of the Study
The study is divided into five main chapters.
After the introduction comes a historically oriented chapter tracing the development of pneumatology within the Christian tradition. It deals in particular with two groups of problems: the Filioque question and the discussion of a possible binitarianism in the early church. Both topics are fundamental for understanding Karl Barth’s pneumatological decisions.
Selected contemporary proposals in pneumatology are then presented. The aim of this overview is to make the current discussion of the Holy Spirit visible and to determine Karl Barth’s specific position within these debates.
The second main chapter is devoted to different interpretations of Karl Barth’s theology. It focuses on the work of Ingrid Spieckermann, Bruce L. McCormack and Eberhard Busch. The analysis of these positions is meant to clarify the basic approaches that shape Barth scholarship today.
The third main chapter deals with the most important pneumatological reconstructions of Barth’s theology, giving particular attention to the work of Christian Henning, Dietrich Braun, Philip J. Rosato and Reinhard Hütter. The study shows that the question of the place of the Holy Spirit in Barth’s theology remains contested and can by no means be regarded as settled.
Against this background, the fourth main chapter develops an independent reconstruction of Barth’s pneumatology. The starting point is an analysis of the thesis statements of the doctrine of reconciliation, which first brings out their surface structure. On this basis, a deep-grammatical examination of CD IV/1 follows.
This analysis shows why Barth did not want to develop an autonomous pneumatology. At the same time, the frequently raised thesis of a pneumatological deficit is critically examined. The study concludes that a stronger independence of pneumatology within the Church Dogmatics would have been conceivable, but that there are also numerous indications of the fundamental importance of the Holy Spirit for the overall structure of Barth’s theology.
Pneumatology, Church and the Public Sphere
The final chapter unfolds the consequences of the preceding analyses for church and society.
Starting from Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, it first asks about the role of religion within postmodern society. The reflections of Jürgen Habermas, Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben and Gianni Vattimo are added in order to define more closely the specific conditions of the contemporary public sphere.
Religion appears here as an independent social subsystem with its own form of rationality and interpretation of reality. The central question is therefore how Christian theology can bring its perspective to bear under the conditions of the modern public sphere.
In this context, Karl Barth’s theology is brought into conversation with the thought of Erik Peterson. Peterson holds that the public character of the church does not first have to be produced but is already given in its very nature. It is grounded in the liturgy and worship of the church, in which the congregation shares in the heavenly praise of God.
Of particular importance here are the three basic functions of church life: leiturgia, martyria and diakonia. These dimensions of the church’s public character are related to Barth’s understanding of the congregation as a community of faith, hope and love.
The study shows that in this way the church opens up a special space within society. This space is, in a sense, a counter-model to the dominant logics of social self-organization. Precisely in this way, the church fulfils an important public function.
At this point a connection emerges with Avishai Margalit’s theory of the “decent society.” The church, inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit, can be understood as a social reality that makes visible forms of living together marked by respect, reconciliation and solidarity. In this sense it becomes a social institution that lets alternative possibilities of human community be experienced.
Concluding Remarks
The study concludes that, despite all open questions and despite justified criticism, Barth’s pneumatology holds considerable potential for the current theological discussion. Its very combination of Christology, the doctrine of the Trinity, ecclesiology and anthropology opens perspectives for a renewed understanding of the church’s role in modern society.
The particular strength of this theology lies in its capacity to interpret reality neither in idealizing nor in resigned terms, but to perceive it within the horizon of God’s reconciliation with the world. This enables the church to exercise its public responsibility while remaining faithful to its theological identity.
Finally, the study makes clear that the church can never fulfil its mission by its own strength. It remains dependent on the creative work of the Holy Spirit. Over its action, therefore, stands ever anew the petition: Veni Creator Spiritus. Only where God’s Spirit is at work can the church do justice to its mission in the world and in society.