The Dialectics of Discipleship: Karl Barth, Sanctification and Theological Ethics [Hardcover]

Interrogating Barth's discipleship-shaped vision of sanctification, this book investigates both Lutheran and Calvinian source material to develop an account that differs markedly from other Lutheran and Calvinist perspectives. Highlighting the robustly theological and Christ-centred character of Barth's account, Chris Swann demonstrates that, far from merely valorising human activity, Barth advances an understanding of human moral agency, action, and suffering that is real but relative to the agency of God in Christ to which it corresponds analogously.

With a focus on the role the image of discipleship plays in giving conceptual structure and shape to Barth's distinctive account of the correspondence between divine agency and sanctified human agency, this book evaluates the ramifications of his discipleship-shaped vision of sanctification. In doing this, it gives special attention to Barth's own personal mixed record with regard to Christian discipleship. Ultimately, Swann retrieves a number of important resources for contemporary theological ethics from Barth's theology of discipleship.

The two great strengths of Chris Swann's book are, first, his careful and detailed delineation of Barth's account of the call to discipleship and its pivotal role within his doctrine of sanctification, and the subsequent treatment of church and Christian life inChurch DogmaticsIV/2. Second, his consistent focus on what was surely a central concern of Karl Barth throughout his career: the practical utility of theology for the life and proclamation of the Christian community. Swann displays with clarity and sensitivity the relevance of the call to discipleship for the church and the Christian vis-?-vis the world, avoiding the twin dangers of cultural accommodation and reactionary sectarianism. Faithful response tolÃ