Barth's Interpretation of the Virgin Birth

A Sign of Mystery

Dustin Resch

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781138271692
• eBook ISBN: 9781317176107
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

The doctrine of the virgin birth is intricately woven within the texture of the liturgy, theology and piety of all branches of the Christian Church. In spite of its enduring influence, the doctrine has been dogged by criticism, particularly in the modern era. By the 20th century, the teaching of the virgin birth was rejected by the majority of Protestant theologians in Europe. Rejecting the conclusion of many of his contemporaries-including that of his own father-the Swiss theologian, Karl Barth (1886-1968), argued vehemently that, understood aright, the doctrine of the virgin birth plays a crucial role in Christian thought. Barth's legacy in this regard is widely regarded as providing the most influential rehabilitation of the doctrine among Protestants. This book offers a comprehensive account and analysis of Barth's interpretation of the doctrine of the virgin birth. Setting the doctrine in the context of the western Christian tradition, Resch examines it in relation to Barth's discussions in the Church Dogmatics of Christology, pneumatology and the interpretation of Scripture. The importance of this study lies in the way that it reveals Barth's continuity and discontinuity with both the classical Augustinian tradition of interpreting the virgin birth and the criticisms of the modern era, but especially in the way in which attention to Barth's doctrine of the virgin birth reveals his assumptions about the nature of history, humanity and the identity of Jesus Christ. As a 'fitting' sign of the mystery of the incarnation, Barth argued that the virgin birth expressed the dialectic of God's 'No' to sin and 'Yes' to humanity in his free act of revelation and reconciliation. As such, the doctrine of the virgin birth functioned for Barth as a paradigm through which to understand the fashion of God's work upon human beings and the suitable posture of the human being before God.

Chapter 1 The Doctrine of the Virgin Birth according to Select Figures in the Western Church

DOI: 10.4324/9781315568744-2

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to provide theological context within which to interpret Karl Barth’s treatment of the doctrine of the virgin birth. In order to do so, I have provided a survey of select figures within the Western interpretive tradition that illuminates Barth’s distinctive contribution to the doctrine. ¹ This survey will draw out several of the ways in which the virgin birth was defended and rejected on the basis of its perceived “fit” with the broad themes of Christology, pneumatology and anthropology. We shall also be introduced to the various theological functions given to the doctrine by the interpreters surveyed here and to the criticism of these functions in the modern era. Barth, we shall see, was cognizant of the main contours of this tradition and crafted his own interpretation of the virgin birth aiming to avoid the pitfalls that he perceived there.

¹ The following works provide more comprehensive overviews of broader swaths of the theological landscape of the virgin birth: Boslooper, Virgin Birth; von Campenhausen, The Virgin Birth in the Theology of the Ancient Church; Douglas Edwards, The Virgin Birth in History and Faith (London, 1943); Jaroslav Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100–600), vol. I, The Christian Tradition: A History of Development (Chicago, 1971), pp. 278–331.

Irenaeus of Lyons (d. 202)

The treatment of the virgin birth in the writings of Irenaeus provides an important comparison with that of Karl Barth, particularly for the different ways that both figures read the virgin birth in light of Genesis 1–3. For Irenaeus, the virgin birth is the means by which the Son of God took on human flesh, with Mary serving as the point of contact between the divine Son of God and the generations of human beings under the curse of sin. Perhaps more importantly, though, the virgin birth is the only means by which the humanity of Christ could, in truth, be that of the original human being, Adam. ² By taking on Adamic flesh, the Son would be able to live a fully human life from infancy to adulthood in which he obeyed where Adam disobeyed, thus sanctifying human life and reversing the results of Adam’s sin. ³ In order for Christ to recapitulate Adam in himself—a theme so pronounced in Irenaeus’s writings—he not only had to have the human nature of Adam, but he had to have it in the same way as Adam had it. This is why both Adam and Jesus are “conceived” or “originate” in an analogous manner: their human nature was the direct result of God’s formative work. ⁴ Irenaeus explains:

² Irenaeus of Lyons, Adversus Haeresus, in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. I, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Peabody, 1999), 5.1.2. Hereafter referenced as AH. Cf. 3.19.3. ³ Ibid., 2.22.4; 4.33.2; 5.14.1–3. See also the fascinating account offered by Irenaeus of the temptation of Christ that is interpreted against the temptation of Adam in AH 5.21.2–3. ⁴ Ibid., 3.18.7.

And as the protoplast himself, Adam, had his substance from untilled and as yet virgin soil (“for God had not yet sent rain, and man had not tilled the ground”), and was formed by the hand of God, that is, by the Word of God, for “all things were made by Him,” and the Lord took dust from the earth and formed man; so did He who is the Word, recapitulating Adam in Himself, rightly receive a birth, enabling Him to gather up Adam [into Himself], from Mary, who was as yet a virgin. ⁵

⁵ Ibid., 3.21.10. Irenaeus also extends the Adam–Christ typology to the relationship between Mary and Eve, allotting to Mary a unique contribution to the salvation wrought by Christ. Just as death has come through the disobedience of the betrothed virgin, Eve, so also has life come through the obedience of the betrothed virgin, Mary. See ibid., 4.33.11; 3.22.4; cf. Gustaf Wingren, Man and the Incarnation: A Study in the Biblical Theology of Irenaeus, trans. Ross Mackenzie (Philadelphia, 1959), p. 47; M.C. Steenberg, ‘The Role of Mary as Co-Recapitulator,’ Vigilae Christianae, 58 (2004): pp. 117–37; Benjamin Dunning, “Virgin Earth, Virgin Birth: Creation, Sexual Difference, and Recapitulation in Irenaeus of Lyons,” Journal of Religion, 89.1 (2009): pp. 57–88.

Adam was created out of the dust of the earth and formed directly by the hands of God. Eve was brought forth through Adam. All subsequent descendants of Adam are born of two parents. A virgin birth is the necessary manner for the Son of God to enter the world because it sets the flesh of Christ in continuity with Adam’s descendants, but also allows Christ’s flesh to be related to God in the same way as the original Adam. ⁶ As such, Christ can serve as recapitulator of Adam. What is crucial to note is that the virgin birth is not, for Irenaeus, about Christ being divine; rather, the virgin birth is entirely about the humanity of Christ in relation to the first human being. ⁷ Taking up the first Adam’s humanity is the foundational step in the work of recapitulation and this is dependent on a parallel between the Adam and Christ’s modes of conception. ⁸

⁶ Irenaeus, AH 3.21.10; cf. AH 3.18.7; 3.21.9. See also Wingren, Man and the Incarnation, pp. 83–6, 95–7; M.C. Steenberg, Irenaeus on Creation: The Cosmic Christ and the Saga of Redemption (Leiden, 2008), pp. 47–9, 115–17. ⁷ Wingren, Man and the Incarnation, pp. 97; cf. Steenberg, Irenaeus on Creation, pp. 108–11. ⁸ Benjamin Dunning, “Virgin Earth, Virgin Birth: Creation, Sexual Difference, and Recapitulation in Irenaeus of Lyons,” Journal of Religion, 89.1 (2009): 68–72.

Another important aspect of the work of Christ is his ability to accustom humanity for the reception of the divine Spirit. While this process takes place throughout Christ’s human life, of particular significance is the Spirit’s work in Christ’s conception, baptism and resurrection. ⁹ According to Irenaeus, in Christ’s conception by the Spirit, his human nature is created, brought into union with the divine Word and so adopted as “Son.” ¹⁰ By virtue of the incarnational union brought about by means of the Spirit, the human nature of Christ is now suitable for the anointing of the Spirit. At his baptism, Christ’s Spirit-conceived human nature was endowed with the attributes necessary to fulfill the Messianic role. ¹¹ The Holy Spirit also raised Christ from the dead with his human nature transformed and glorified. ¹² After his ascension to the Father in this transformed flesh, Christ poured out the Spirit on all humanity at Pentecost and so enabled the adoption of sons and the resurrection of all flesh. ¹³ In this understanding of the progressive giving of the Spirit to humanity and the progressive accustoming of humanity for the Spirit, the virgin birth and the corresponding conception by the Spirit play a crucial role. They ground the entire work of accustoming human nature for communion with God by the Spirit.

⁹ See Daniel A. Smith, “Irenaeus and the Baptism of Jesus,” Theological Studies, 58 (1997): pp. 618–42. ¹⁰ Irenaeus, AH 3.19.1; cf. Irenaeus, Proof of the Apostolic Preaching, trans. Joseph P. Smith, Ancient Christian Writers, vol. XVI, (New York, 1952), pp. 81–3, 85; Wingren, Man and Incarnation, p. 98. ¹¹ Irenaeus, AH 3.9.3; cf. 3.17.1. Proof, pp. 73–4. ¹² Ibid., 3.16.3. ¹³ Ibid., 3.17.1–2; cf. 5.12.1–4.

The virgin birth also extends to Irenaeus’s understanding of the people of God. He sets the adoption of human beings as sons of God by the generation of the Spirit in contrast to the generation that stems from Adam and leads to death. In this view of salvation history the virgin birth plays a pivotal role. First, there is the birth of Adam who was created by God from the dust of the earth. Corresponding to the birth of Adam is the virginal birth of Christ, the second Adam. These two births are in analogy, as we have seen. In addition, corresponding to the births of the two Adams are two separate generations. ¹⁴ The generation that comes from the first Adam is the generation of death through sin. The generation that comes from the birth of the second Adam is the generation of adoption by the Spirit. ¹⁵ In this scheme the virgin birth of Christ is constitutive of the event within history that disrupts the natural generation of death from Adam and opens the way for the generation of the Spirit which is adoption. ¹⁶ In the midst of a creation burdened by death, the virgin birth of Christ is the origin of that which will become the new creation by the Spirit. The significance of this new creation extends even to all those generations that preceded Christ, thus reversing the effects of Adam’s original disobedience. ¹⁷

¹⁴ Ibid., 4.33.4, cf. 5.1.3; 3.14.1; 4.33.11; John Behr, Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement (Oxford, 2000), pp. 68–9. ¹⁵ Irenaeus, AH 3.19.1; cf. 3.16.3. ¹⁶ Irenaeus, Proof, pp. 71–2; AH 5.1.3. ¹⁷ Irenaeus, AH 3.22.3.

Finally, the virgin birth served Irenaeus as a fitting “sign” and “token” of the salvation wrought by God in Christ. ¹⁸ The ap...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1 The Doctrine of the Virgin Birth according to Select Figures in the Western Church
• 2 The Development of Karl Barth's Doctrine of the Virgin Birth
• 3 The Virgin Birth as the Sign of God's “Yes” and “No”
• 4 The Conception of Jesus and the Work of the Holy Spirit
• 5 There for God: Mary in the Theology of Karl Barth
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index