Mark R. Lindsay

Review: Markus Barth

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Markus Barth, Mark R. Lindsay. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514001622) 2024.

Summary: The first biography of Markus Barth, drawn from access to his letters and papers, highlighting his theological legacy.

Karl Barth is one of the undisputed giants of theological studies in the twentieth century. Markus Barth, although a fine New Testament scholar, is far less known today. But Mark R. Lindsay may help change that with this biography of Markus Barth, the first to be published. Drawing on newly available archives of Markus Barth’s papers and private letters, he not only traces the life but also the theological legacy of this scholar.

The narrative begins with tracing a childhood on the move, as his father took different positions. We’re introduced to the unusual relationship between Karl, Nellie, and Charlotte von Kirschbaum, a;lthough it doesn’t appear to have intruded on Markus’ childhood. And we see the first glimmerings of Markus’ theological insights and independence in his decision to refuse to be confirmed. Lindsay traces Markus’ education, his courtship of Rose Marie, and his opposition to Nazism, nearly leading to arrest, before he fled to Edinburgh to complete his theological studies.

Like his father, he began his career as a pastor in the village of Bubendorf in Switzerland, where he served from 1940 until 1953. It was here that his distinctive views of Communion began to form–neither sacrament nor memorial. He arrived at similar views with regard to baptism, rejecting infant baptism. Subsequent chapters cover his teaching career at three very different U.S. institutions: Dubuque, the University of Chicago, and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. While none of these quite fit, he was deeply appreciated by students. Dubuque was too confessionally constricting. While Chicago afforded scholarly opportunities, the pluralism of the theological faculty led to questions of why he had been appointed. Pittsburgh was a better fit but he clashed with seminary leadership and some of the conservatism of Pittsburgh’s Presbyterian community.

In 1973, he returned to Basel, where he had completed his doctorate under somewhat controversial circumstances. These years marked the zenith of his scholarship with the publication of his two-volume Anchor Commentary on Ephesians. He also was increasingly engaged in Jewish-Christian dialogue efforts, in which he played something of a path-breaking role. Anticipating the problems Christians would face in our own day, he later ran into grief when he challenged Israeli treatment of Palestinians, even while supporting the State of Israel generally as well as the importance of Jewish-Christian dialogue.

One of the challenges of his later years was that his teaching and lecture travel hampered his scholarship, notably the completion of his work on Philemon (posthumously) and Colossians (unfinished). This was further exacerbated by declining health and he followed Rose Marie in death in 1994.,

Lindsay highlights three areas in which Barth left a theological legacy. The first was in New Testament scholarship. In contrast to his father, he was a biblical theologian who worked from rigorous exegesis to biblical themes. Second, his distinctive views on baptism and the Lord’s Supper extended his father’s work. He saw these as a witness rather than memorials or means of grace, celebrations of the work of Christ. Finally, Barth was so involved in Jewish-Christian efforts that he was named by one Jewish commentator as “chaside omit ha-olam” or one of “the righteous ones of the nations of the world.” He saw the Jews as the people of God, an identity shared by but not superseded by Christians.

What I also appreciate about this account is how Barth gave himself for his students and the lifelong friendships with many. He loved open evenings in his home where any question was fair game. He also made room for Rose Marie to shine in these conversation. I found myself wishing I’d known of him while he was in Pittsburgh. I heard other Pittsburgh Seminary professors speak, notably John Gerstner. How I wish I could have seen the two of them in conversation!

Mark Lindsay’s biography not only gave me an appreciation of Barth’s life. It reminded me of works by Barth sitting on my shelves, and others that might be worth exploring, particularly the Ephesian commentaries. The book includes a number of photographs as well as extensive lists of publications and bibliography, a gift for any interested in the work of this “son of Barth.”

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: God Has Chosen

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God Has Chosen, Mark R. Lindsay. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2020.

Summary: A survey of the development of the doctrine of election throughout Christian history, including discussions of human freedom, those who are not of the elect, and the status of Israel as chosen.

The idea of election, that God chooses a people for God’s self, is one precious to some, an assurance of belonging and of God having done something we could not do. It is threatening to others–how may I know I am among the elect, and how can God save some and not others?

From the writers of scripture to the present day, the church’s theologians have wrestled with these ideas. What Mark R. Lindsay does in this work is to trace the development of this doctrine throughout Christian history. After an introduction in which he differentiates his approach from other contemporary scholars, he begins with some of the key texts on election from both testaments, emphasizing that any idea of chosenness has to draw upon what this meant for Israel. This is followed by a consideration of the early fathers: Ignatius of Antioch, Origen, Cyprian, and Augustine. This was a formative period for the church’s doctrine and the corresponding question of who is “in” and who is “out” that reflect their convictions about election.

In subsequent chapters Lindsay considers two or three key thinkers in each chapter. Chapter three focuses on Aquinas and Duns Scotus, where the elect and citizens of the state were more or less one and the same. Chapter four focuses on three Reformation figures: Calvin, Beza, and Arminius. Striking here is the relatively limited space devoted to this by Calvin, the expansion and extension of Calvin’s thought by Beza, and the responses of Arminius regarding human agency and God’s salvation.

Chapter five addresses early modernity and Lindsay offers an interesting pairing of Schliermacher and J. N. Darby. On the face, they could not be more different but Lindsay argues for an expansive vision of God’s electing will as something they had in common. Chapter six focuses on Barth alone, and the development of his thought over the course of his career, particularly as his thought focused on Christ and the community formed in him, and its resistance to Nazi ideology. The final chapter then considers the Holocaust. If God chose the Jewish people in some way, what then do we make of the near extermination of that people? Does this deny the existence of God, or is the remnant that survives one more evidence of God’s continuing relation with this people? Or is this one more place to argue for a free will theodicy? And how ought Christians think of the Jewish people given the dangers of supercessionism?

Throughout the book, Lindsay explores the differing ways thinkers understood the elect and “the reprobate.” In his conclusion, he shows his own hand in expressing a tentative hopeful universalism grounded in our own incapacity to fully understand the mind of God. He cites Revelation 22:17: “Let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life” (Italics in the author’s citation of this verse). The author warns against “definitive pronouncements,” which is warranted. Given the testimony of the whole of scripture, and particularly that of our Lord, I think there might also be a caution against “speculative suggestions” that may soften the plain warnings of scripture. I believe we may hope and find comfort in the wideness of God’s electing grace while never presuming with regard to the warnings of judgment.

However one sorts these things out, this work is helpful in offering incisive summaries and comparisons of the thought of different key figures as well as an extensive bibliography. For a survey of two thousand years of thought, Lindsay has presented the reader with a work that is at once introductory and of significant depth on this important doctrine.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.