Barth and Hans W. Frei

Abstract

In this chapter, I will summarise the development of Hans Frei’s reading of Karl Barth in order to contextualise his own Christology as an attempt to learn from Barth yet think beyond him on the locus central to all his theology. While we can trace significant lines of continuity between Frei’s Identity of Jesus Christ and Karl Barth as Frei understood him, we can also see it as a bold, risky essay in pursuit of an even more focused attention to the concreteness of God’s presence in Jesus Christ given us in the text of Scripture.