Ethics in crisis: Interpreting Barth's ethics

Abstract

This work depicts the contemporary crisis in Christian ethical thought and offers a constructive proposal for responding to this crisis. The constructive proposal draws on a new and persuasive interpretation of the ethics of Karl Barth developed in the central section of the book. The aims of the work are three-fold: (1) to draw attention to the failure of Christian ethicists to speak in a way that can be heard in contemporary ethical debate; (2) to demonstrate that Karl Barth’s ethical thought should be interpreted dialectically, in the light of his response to the crisis of the Römerbrief; (3) to make a proposal for how the crisis of speechlessness in contemporary Christian ethics may be overcome, drawing on this dialectical interpretation of Barth’s ethics.