Worship as primary ethical act: Barth on Romans 12

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Worship as primary ethical act: Barth on Romans 12
 
Creator Havenga, Marthinus J.
 
Subject — Karl Barth; Der Römerbrief; worship; ethics; South Africa
Description Following the centenary year of the publication of the first edition of Karl Barth’s Der Römerbrief, this article attempts to look at what a contemporary South African audience could potentially learn from Barth’s reading of Romans 12. This article begins with a few preliminary remarks on the reading of Barth in both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, and asks whether his theology still has any role to play in current theological and ethical discourses (amidst calls that theology should be decolonised). After arguing that Barth might still have ‘a’ contribution to make (as we further develop our own theologies), this article provides an in-depth exposition and analysis of Barth’s reading of Romans 12. Here it is shown how, in his commentary on this chapter (under the heading ‘The Problem of Ethics’), Barth maintains that worship, that is, the offering of our bodies as ‘living sacrifices’ to God, should be seen as the primary ethical act, which precedes and renders possible all other secondary ethical conduct. This is then followed by the last section of this article, which explores the possible meaning and relevance of Barth’s insights for life in present-day South Africa.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2020-03-19
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v76i1.5824
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 76, No 1 (2020); 7 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5824/14755 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5824/14754 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5824/14756 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/5824/14753
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Marthinus J. Havenga https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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