Karl Barth and Christian Ethics

This critical study of Karl Barth’s Christian theological ethics discusses Barth’s controversial and characteristically misunderstood ethics of divine command. The surprising relation of his ’divine command ethics’ to contemporary ’narrative theology’ and ’virtue ethics’ and specific moral themes concerning bonds between parents and children, the nature of truth telling, and the meaning of Christian love of God and neighbour are all discussed. This book reveals Barth’s richness, depth and insight, and places his work in constructive connection with salient themes in both Catholic and Protestant ethics.

William Werpehowski is the Robert L. McDevitt, K.S.G., K.C.H.S. and Catherine H. McDevitt L.C.H.S Professor in Catholic Theology at Georgetown University, USA. He is the author of American Protestant Ethics and the Legacy of H. Richard Niebuhr (Georgetown, 2002), and co-editor of The Love Commandments: Christian Ethics and Moral Philosophy (Georgetown, 1992), The Essential Paul Ramsey (Yale, 1994), and The Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics (Oxford, 2005).