Karl Barth
The theologian whom the Evangelical Church in Germany names among the leaders of the church opposition that met at Barmen in 1934 and adopted the declaration against the German Christians.
The introduction that the Evangelical Church in Germany publishes with the Barmen Declaration names “theologian Karl Barth” beside four pastors as one of the church leaders who opposed what it calls the church’s captivity to National Socialism and who brought the synod of May 1934 together (Barmen Declaration, EKD introduction (English)). The first thesis of the declaration says that Jesus Christ, as attested in holy Scripture, is the one Word of God, and rejects the teaching that the church must acknowledge other events, powers, figures and truths beside it as God’s revelation (Barmen Declaration, thesis 1). The documents cited here do not say who drafted the theses. See the Barmen Declaration.
In the timeline
- 31 May 1934, firm dateThe Barmen Declaration
Meeting at Barmen in May 1934, a synod of Lutheran, Reformed and United Protestants declares against the German Christians that Jesus Christ is the one Word of God the church has to hear, and that the state may not become the total order of human life.