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The Theological Declaration of Barmen Revisited Theology Matters A Publication of Presbyterians for Faith, Family and Ministry Vol 6 No 6 • Nov/Dec 2000 The Theological Declaration of Barmen Revisited by Ulrich Mauser In May 1967, the 179th General Assembly of the which the framers of Barmen condemned as false Presbyterian Church in the United States of America teaching. The signatories of Barmen were, however, also adopted the Book of Confessions, combining ten conscious of speaking out against a crisis in the church’s confessions into a collection of statements of confessional teaching and practice far older than the political and character which are to be regarded as “subordinate ecclesiastical turmoil in the Germany of the 1930s. Their standards in the church, subject to the authority of Jesus Declaration was a call to theological repentance of a Christ, the Word of God, as the Scriptures bear witness to history of errors that had plagued the church for the him” (Book of Confessions, 9.03). Included in this Book previous 200 years. As a voice in this crisis, the of Confessions were two doctrinal texts from the 20th Theological Declaration was, to the framers of Barmen, century, the Theological Declaration of Barmen of 1934 both a beacon of hope, because it had found a common and the Confession of 1967. After the reunification of the ground on which historically separated branches of the two largest Presbyterian churches into the Presbyterian Reformation could stand together, and simultaneously, a Church (USA) a Brief Statement of Faith was added to the document of separation from a strong, indeed from the Book of Confessions in 1983. Thus, our Book of ruling, group in the church. Barmen is, at one and the Confessions in the Presbyterian Church (USA) today same time, the promulgation of a miracle discovering a contains two ancient creeds, six documents from the new unity and the announcement of a separation on extended period of the Reformation, and three texts from principle from heretical teaching. One of the first the twentieth century. commentators on Barmen spoke of the joint confession of Lutheran, Reformed, and United Churches, as “a miracle The Theological Declaration of Barmen is the product of a before our eyes,” and fifty years later, one of the original crisis in the Protestant church whose dimension is signatories of the Declaration wrote, in retrospect, that unprecedented since the Reformation of the 16th century. Barmen “appeared to us then like a miracle from God.” 1 It was written and agreed upon by a group opposed, not so It is this dual character of the Theological Declaration of much to the secular government of the Nazis, as to the Barmen that will occupy the center of attention in this national church government that acted in defiance of the essay: Barmen as the promulgation of a new-found unity church’s constitution and supported a brand of teaching among Protestant churches which had traditionally been alienated from each other, and Barmen as a Dr. Mauser is recently retired from Princeton Theological pronouncement of separation from false teaching and Seminary where he taught New Testament. He lived in practice in the same churches. Germany until he was 33 years old. He is author of numerous articles and books. Barmen is the product of German Protestantism of the 1930s. We shall endeavor to listen to the voice of the Presbyterians for Faith, Family and Ministry Page 1 Theological Declaration as a historical document whose Nazis.” 5 These assessments of Barmen as an event origin is rooted in circumstances far removed from the signaling political resistance are not misleading, although situation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) at the start of they reflect a view of the effects of Barmen that could be the third millennium. We shall therefore resist attempts gained only in retrospect. Factually, Barmen speaks to an to draw quick parallels between the Barmen Declaration inner-ecclesiastical controversy in a manner that political and our own situation today. But we shall also include in consequences are necessarily implied. It is needed, this exercise of listening to a historical voice our own therefore, to sketch the political events of the fateful years Christian life with its own problems and demands in the 1933 and 1934 that brought the establishment of Hitler’s hope that a dialogue will ensue in which a word of the tyranny and the consolidation of various religious groups past can engage, without losing its integrity, in living into the “Faith Movement of the German Christians” who dialogue with our own voice in the present. became allies of Nazi ideology and power. The hidden polemic of the Barmen Declaration against this alliance could not be understood otherwise. In The Lion’s Den The Barmen Theological Declaration does not confront The German defeat in World War I (1918) had produced the Hitler regime directly. It is not a manifesto of a in Germany a spirit of nationalistic defiance. A cult of the movement of political resistance against the Nazi supposedly superior Germanic spirit had spread already in th government. Its framers took pains to distance themselves the 19 century, propagated by the idealistic philosopher from the accusation of being disloyal to the political order Johann Gottlieb Fichte, advanced by the Romantic that had been introduced into German life with Hitler’s Movement, popularized by the musical dramas of Richard assumption of power in January 1933. When Hans Wagner, and given the form of ideological theory by such Asmussen presented the officially approved explanatory non-Germans as Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau, the comments to the delegates of the Synod on the day before pioneer of the myth of Aryanism, and Houston Stewart the unanimous reception of the Declaration, he noted that Chamberlain. The military defeat of 1918, far from the accusation of rebellion against the state, leveled dampening the Germanic spirit, had only served to fan its against the Barmen Synod, was completely false and fire. Groups celebrating the Germanic way sprang up in unjust.2 Already in the preparatory stages of the Barmen different forms, and under different names, all over Synod it was abundantly clear that the opposition, against German lands, and soon undertook to amalgamate the which the Declaration was to be presented, was a Christian tradition with nationalistic aspirations. Two movement within the Protestant Churches of Germany. examples of principles adopted by such groups may Karl Koch, who as president of the Synod of Westphalia illustrate the ideology for which they stood. In Ernst had been given the responsibility to coordinate efforts of Bergmann’s Confessio Germanica of 1933 one was told, the emerging confessing church, wrote to Karl Barth three in mocking imitation of a trinitarian faith: “I believe in weeks before the meeting of the Barmen Synod: “In the the God of German religion who works in nature, in the confessional declaration we are concerned with the exalted human spirit, and in the strength of his people. clarification of the common aim of the (Protestant) And in the helper in need, Krist who fights for the confessions vis-a-vis the German Christians, their nobility of the human soul. And in Germany, the land for teaching and their methods.” Koch’s subsequent five the cultivation of a new humanity.” Some more remnants points outline exclusively ecclesiastical themes and make of a Christian substance are still preserved in the creed of no mention of Hitler’s state.3 Months before, a young aide another group, also from 1933, in which loyalty to Hitler to the Lutheran bishop of Bavaria, who also happened to and his party has already been integrated into a religious be an early member of the National Socialist Party, faith statement: “We German Christians believe in our reported about a meeting with two leaders of the savior Jesus Christ, in the power of his cross and confessing church (Koch and Niemöller): “The entire resurrection. Jesus’ life and death teaches us that the way evening there was not one word directed against the state of fight is also the way of love and the way of life ... As in ... nothing about the National Socialist Party, nothing at every people, the eternal God has implanted as creator in all, but simply the uncompromising struggle against the our people also a law that is distinct to it. This law non-church (of the German Christians).” 4 The Barmen assumed historical form in the leader Adolf Hitler and in Declaration is, without a doubt, a document of vigorous the national-socialist state fashioned by him. This law resistance. But its resistance is aimed at a danger inside speaks in the history of our people that has grown out of the Protestant German church at that time. In its original blood and soil. Fidelity to this law demands of us the 6 intention Barmen called for vigilance in a struggle fight for honor and freedom.” involving opposing movements within one church. Out of the diverse groups that shared the nationalistic- In spite of this orientation, the Synod of Barmen in May religious convictions captured in these quotes, the Faith 1934 has become one of the most important expressions of Movement of the German Christians arose. Under the a political resistance against Hitler’s totalitarian rule. leadership of the Berlin pastor Joachim Hossenfelder it Many papers and entire books evaluating the Barmen had consolidated itself as a missionary reform movement Declaration after World War II see in the Declaration a already before Hitler became chancellor of Germany. But clarion call through which “the Church confronts the Hitler’s takeover of power provided the stimulus for Page 2 Theology Matters • Nov/Dec 2000 Hossenfelder’s faith-movement to pursue its nationalistic- and Nation” is issued canceling the right of Parliament religious aims in close alliance with the Nazi government.
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