| In this dissertation I analyze how Karl Barth judges certain modes of human action as good or bad. Its central thesis is that its subject views the moral life as one lived in conformity to created human nature. Precisely because we are called to participate in the divine life, we ought to realize the fullness of human life in ourselves and in others. Its proposal is that for Barth what human beings ought to do is importantly determined by what sort of creatures they are and the conditions of their existence. Christian existence is authentically human existence: good human action is that which is appropriate or fitting for human beings. In this way I read Barth's account of the divine command as determining us in accordance with the order of creaturely existence. The demands God lays upon the moral life do not contradict or ignore human nature. Rather, God commands us to be who we are, to act in obedience to our creaturely determination, and to live in conformity to the deepest truth about ourselves. In contrast to prevailing views which see Barth as espousing act-deontology, situationalism, or intuitionism, I therefore interpret him as being more in line than previously understood with certain forms of eudaimonistic thinking. |
