Luther and Barth
From LutheranWiki
According to G. Ebeling, Barth, in his multi-volume Church Dogmatics, goes too far in integrating the individual articles of the faith. The "too far" is not that he has Christ at the center (as if Luther had something else there). The "too far" consists in that he by way of his characteristic Christological synthesis eliminates serveral basic theological distinctions, such as law and gospel, grace and wrath, God and creature. At the end of the day this leads necessarily to universalism because also the basic distinctions between election and reprobation, between faith and unbelief, salvation and condemnation are fused in Christ, resulting in an homogeneous, undialectical message. This is how Barth attempted to eliminate affliction / temptation (Anfechtung) from the outset -- by a monolithic "Christological enlightenment" resulting in a Christian philosophy that is comforting already apart from faith in Christ.
Against this backdrop, it is revealing that Barth defines "the man Jesus Christ, by means of the Holy Spirit present today as yesterday in the witness of the Old and New Testament and thus God himself in his truth ..." as the subject matter of theology. In fact, it is as revealing as Barth's replacement of the doctrine of justification by Christology as the central article since, for Luther, both are merely two sides of the same coin.[1]
Oswald Bayer thetically describes the difference between Barth and Luther thus: "the one distinguishes as decidedly as the other insists on a unity."[2] Bayer shows this in two highly important areas: Barth, on the one hand, insists on the unity of the word of God above and beyond the distinction between law and gospel; Luther insists on the careful distinction thereof, even in Christology (380). As seen above, this comes to a head in the doctrine of predestination but is relevant not just there.
Barth, on the other hand, distinguishes between God's word and man's word and views the latter as mere mirror image of the former, while Luther emphasized the humanity of God's word (381). This has implications for Barth's view of the bible and preaching and for his understanding of the sacraments, as Bayer shows (381-388).
