Barth, Rosenstock, Rosenzweig

Mark Lindsay (Barth, Israel, and Jesus, 27-28) notes that Barth found little intellectual companionship during his early pastorate at Safenwil. Yet, “his final years in Safenwil opened up occasions for contact with individual Jews and Jewish Christians at both social and academic levels. Many of these were Germans, with whom Barth struck up friendships following the Tambach lecture of September 1919. Most notably, he came to know Hans and Rudolf Ehrenberg, Eugen Rosenstock-Hüssy and the great German Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzweig, who together made up the so-called Patmos Circle. This eclectic but eminent group of philosophers, theologians and scientists was convinced—in the aftermath of the First World War—that civilization could be saved only by the daily spiritual and practical renewal of the Logos, embodied in speech and action. Not surprisingly, they drew both their name and their inspiration from John the Apostle, the ‘Seer of Patmos.’”

Of Rosenzweig in particular, Lindsay writes: “Barth’s personal interaction with Franz Rosenzweig was not close—in fact, there is no definite evidence that the two ever actually met, despite Rosenzweig’s heavy influence on the Patmos group. Nonetheless, Rosenzweig may well have been an intellectual influence on Barth. We know from Barth’s correspondence with Kornelis Heiko Miskotte that in 1928 (at Miskotte’s suggestion) he read Rosenzweig’s Der Stern der Erlösung. It was clearly a hard book for Barth to understand (!), but it seems to have resonated with him. Specifically, Barth’s use of terminology in CD II/2 strongly suggests that he concurred with Rosenzweig’s vision of both the Church’s evangelical role, and of the fundamental unity of God’s community as expressed in Israel and the Church.”