Election, Atonement, and the Holy Spirit: Through and Beyond Barth’s Theological Interpretation of Scripture

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This book examines the doctrines of election and atonement in Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics, taking up Barth’s own challenge to his reader to surpass his argument and offer a better typological interpretation of the cultic texts. Barth’s radical re-working of Calvin’s doctrine of election is one of the most important developments in twentieth-century theology. Christ synthesizes for Barth a particular dialectic: the binary structure of God’s Yes of election and God’s No of rejection. The book’s central question–how can Jesus simultaneously be both the elected and the rejected (CD II/2), acting as both the judge and the judged (CD IV/1)?–is followed by an exploration of the roles of the Holy Spirit and human freedom in God’s electing and saving action. Commentators both acknowledge Barth’s innovation in this area and identify problems with his approach, but few have offered what David Ford has called a correction from within Barth, using Barth’s own method. Using the concept of Existenzstellvertretung, this critique of Barth’s exegetical justification for the doctrines offers an alternative exegesis that not only provides this much-needed correction, but also immerses the reader in a fresh engagement with Scripture itself.