The Sad Sin, Of A Great Theologian

It didn't make the front page of the New York Times, but it was the lead story for many religious journalists, recently.

Karl Barth engaged in a long-lasting affair with his secretary and assistant, Charlotte von Kirschbaum.  

Though the affair is not new, news, it's intensity has been fuzzy until the recent release of letters between Karl and Charlotte.  The letters are revelatory, expressing a level of emotional intimacy, normally linked to physical intimacy, not just companionship. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2017/october-web-only/what-to-make-of-karl-barths-steadfast-adultery.html

Karl's and Charlotte's intimacy appears to have begun in 1926 when Barth's family was not able to accompany him as he moved from the University of Gottingen to the University of Muster. As George Hunsinger, a leading and sympathetic Barth scholar has acknowledged: 

"...Although we do not know exactly what happened between Barth and Charlotte von Kirschbaum in that fateful encounter of 1926, we do know that from that point on they were in love with each other, that Barth immediately gave her manuscript after manuscript for advice and correction, and that she committed herself henceforth to doing everything she possibly could to advance his theological work. http://barth.ptsem.edu/index.php/Book_Reviews/Book_Review/charlotte-von-kirschbaum-and-karl-barth\

The proximity of Karl and Charlotte steadily increased with Charlotte not only moving into the Barth household in 1929, but occupying a bedroom accessed only through Barth's study.  In addition, Karl and Charlotte traveled together on Barth's lecture tours, and the two regularly took semester break vacations together.

Again, we don't know the details.  But we do know the outcome, which suggests brokenness and sin, as Barth's family was affected by the long-standing affair between Karl and Charlotte.  As Rose Marie Barth, Karl Barth’s daughter-in-law, once commented. 

“…None of them [persons in Barth’s home-base of Basel] had any idea how much suffering there was under the roof of [Barth’s] house. . . It was obvious that Karl Barth needed her [Charlotte] urgently, not merely as a competent secretary . . . but who was first and foremost the companion of his busy life.” Renate Köbler, In the Shadow of Karl Barth: Charlotte von Kirschbaum, trans. Keith Crim (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press,1989), 16.

But in fairness to Karl Barth, other prominent religious leaders have committed marque sins, revealing an inconsistency between what they have written and spoken, and their personal lives.  A sampling:

• Pope John XII was a coarse, foul man, who residence in Rome was spoken of as a brothel.
• Martin Luther advised German leaders to slaughter uprising peasants and was anti-Semitic.
• John Knox (founder of the Presbyterian church) married a teenage girl when he was fifty.
• John Calvin (founder of the Reformed tradition) supported the execution of Servetus and personally took responsibility for it.
• John Wesley's marriage was so troubled, there was a season, when he and his wife, lived apart.
• Charles Spurgeon had a nicotine addiction, 'hooked on' cigars.  
• Jonathan Edward and George Whitfield owned slaves.
• Paul Tillich (Lutheran theologian), John Howard Yoder (Mennonite theologian) and Martin Luther King, had extramarital affairs.
• Peter Marshall (Chaplain of the U.S. Senate) was a chain smoker.
• Bob Pierce (founder of World Vision and Samaritan's Purse) had a ungoverned temper and a compulsive workaholism that contributed to his daughter's suicide and the break-up of his marriage.
• Perry Noble (a prominent mega-church pastor) was dismissed by his congregation for abusing alcohol and compulsive over-drinking. (adapted: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2014/06/should-a-theologians-life-affect-how-we-regard-hisher-theology-updated/)

You get the drift:  Karl Barth is not alone.  

The way forward:

1. Don't Excuse Sin.  Sin is sin and should never be trivialized, minimized, or downplayed.  For as John Piper notes, Paul, in particular, reminds us that sin is deadly force, with a magnitude of power.  Why, Paul speaks of sin, as:  

"...reigning like a king in death (5:21), holding dominion like a Lord (6:14), enslaving like a slavemaster (6:6, 16f, 20), to whom we have been sold (7:14), as a force that produces other sins (7:8), as a power that seizes the law and kills (7:11), as a hostile occupying tenant that dwells in us (7:17, 20), and a law that takes us captive (7:23)..." https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-origin-essence-and-definition-of-sin  

Sin 'is what it is' -- and must be named directly and explicitly.

2.  Realize, However: All Have Sinned And Come Short Of The Glory of God.   Sin is bad, very bad.  But sin is not just a matter of Karl Barth, Pope John XII, John Calvin, John Howard Yoder, or Bob Pierce.  But you and me.     

Translated:  we are all inconsistent -- and sin.  Sure, many of us have not committed public, marque sins, like Barth.  But even our private, 'small' sins are abhorrent in the eyes of a Holy God. Thus, all of us must acknowledge our sin -- and seek a solution: the mercy and grace of God.  

3.   Let The Grace And Mercy Of God Have The Last Word.   It's a paradox.  We must never minimize the abhorrent nature of sin.  Never.

But likewise, we must never minimize the amazing grace and mercy of God.

Erwin Lutzer says it best:   "There is more grace in God's heart than there is sin in your past."

And so, no matter how shocking, scandalous, and disillusioning the discovery of sin might be (in Karl Barth, or, in us) -- we must move-on to a grace-full outlook -- that does not reject or condemn -- but includes.

Yes, includes.  For if we exclude the 'Karl Barths' of the world, we are also excluding ourselves.

For as sinners, all of us desperately need the grace and mercy of the Savior.  And frankly, the grace and mercy of others, as well.

For just about the time we 'throw each other under the bus' -- rejecting one another as 'hypocrites' -- 'tossing each another on the trash heap of life' -- we learn new information about the work of grace and mercy in our lives -- nevertheless. 

Even in Karl Barth's life.  For there is evidence, that in the end, Karl and his wife Nelly came together, again. As George Hunsinger recounts:

 "We know that the two of them [Nelly Barth and Karl Barth] experienced reconciliation after Charlotte departed the household, that she and Karl both visited her at the nursing home on Sundays, that she continued those visits after Karl died in 1968, and that when Charlotte herself died in 1975, Nelly honored Karl’s wishes by having Charlotte buried in the Barth family grave. Nelly herself died in 1976. Visitors to the Basel Hörnli cemetery today can see the names of all three together engraved one by one on the same stone."http://barth.ptsem.edu/index.php/Book_Reviews/Book_Review/charlotte-von-kirschbaum-and-karl-barth 

Of course, all of this is messy and unseemly, especially as you read the recently released letters between Karl and Charlotte.  http://postbarthian.com/2017/10/09/bright-bleak-constellation-karl-barth-nelly-barth-charlotte-von-kirschbaum/

The affair between Karl and Charlotte should have never happened.  But it did.

And so we have a choice:  reject all that Karl Barth ever contributed to Christian thought and life.  Or  -- recognize Karl Barth as a sinner saved by the grace of God -- nevertheless.

Just like us.

But will we opt for grace, over condemnation?

We should, for as Barth notes in a sermon entitled, "Saved By Grace," preached to inmates of the prison at Basel, Switzerland on August 14, 1955.

"...One things is certain: the bright day has dawned, the sun of God does shine into our dark lives, even though we may close our eyes to its radiance.  His voice does call us from heaven, even though we may obstruct our ears.  The bread of life is offered to us, even though we are inclined to clench our fists instead of opening our hands to take the bread and eat it.  The door of our prison is open, even though, strangely enough, we prefer to remain within.  God has put the house in order, even though we like to mess it up all over again.  By grace you have been saved!  This is true, even though we may not believe it, may not accept it as valid for ourselves and unfortunately in so doing may forego its benefits..."

Karl Barth's life was a mess.  But by God's grace, Barth's life was saved,  True, Barth and his clan did not claim all of grace's benefits.  But thank God, God put Barth's house in order --  nevertheless.

For that is The Gospel.  Not only for Barth but for us.  Light, even though we close our eyes.  A voice, even though we obstruct our ears.  Bread, in spite of clenched fists.  An open prison door, even though we prefer to stay within.  And yes, grace -- order -- in spite of the mess of our lives!