Karl Barth on Church and Politics: Is the Church at War? | Faith & Politics #10
October 21, 2026
·1:04:58
About this episode
American Christians with his answer: the church’s task is to preach the word of God.
Asked whether churches should urge members to enlist, buy war bonds, and preach the issues of the war, Barth answers with a counter-question: does the church know its mission is to preach the word of God according to Scripture? From there he supports the fight against Hitler while refusing to let the church become an instrument of the state, rejecting both identification with any political party and a “timeless” spiritual ministry cut off from the present. James and Ashish connect this to the Barmen Declaration, Stanley Hauerwas, and the German Christians’ surrender to Nazism.
Barth challenged 93 American Protestant leaders who claimed that Christian principles depended on winning the war, and the same reasoning returns in every “most crucial election.” James and Ashish argue that the church must speak its own language rather than a party’s talking points, loving the world on God’s terms rather than its own. Being in the world but not of it, they suggest, is a matter of allegiance, not only personal morality.
In this episode:
- What is the true function of the church in wartime, according to Karl Barth?
- Should the church identify with any political party?
- Why Barth rejects a “timeless” spirituality and calls the present God’s time
- The Barmen Declaration and the German Christians’ capitulation to Nazism
- Speaking the church’s own language instead of a political party’s talking points
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