The absurdity of sin and the creaturely life of faith in Karl Barth's theological epistemology

Abstract

This article critically takes up the reaffirmation of Barth's reaction to the analogia entis in the recent work of Keith L. Johnson in order to question Johnson's appeal to human sin as the pivotal factor in Barth's rejection of the Catholic doctrine. By explicating what I call Barth's ‘theological particularism’, it will become more apparent that Johnson's reference to sin in Barth functions abstractly in the very ‘as such’ way that Barth sought to methodologically foreclose while also conflating ordinary creaturely knowledge and being with a view of sin that places God and creatures in epistemic and ontological contradiction. By filling out Johnson's missing account of Barth's view of the shadow of sin, a positive account of creatureliness has the chance to emerge that highlights faith and prayer as the fulfillment of creaturely life in the life of God.