Barth and Dostoevsky: A Study of the Influence of the Russian Writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky on the Development of the Swiss Theologian Karl ... (Paternoster Theological Monographs)

A work of historic and systematic theology, Barth and Dostoevsky examines the influence of the Russian writer and prophet Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky on the Swiss theologian Karl Barth. This is a study that demonstrates that the writings of Dostoevsky initially Crime and Punishment in the summer of 1915, but later The Brothers Karamazov, amongst other works - effected the development of the theology of Karl Barth. This was an influence mediated by his friend and colleague Eduard Thurneysen and was in the form of a key element of Barths thought: his understanding of sin and grace (an understanding that mirrors that of the Reformers but comes, as Barth explained, initially from Dostoevsky). Therefore this study explicates, first, the reading of Dostoevsky by Barth, 1915-16, and the influence on his understanding of sin and grace; second, a study of Eduard Thurneysen in so far as his life and work complements and influences Barth; third, Barths illustrative use of Dostoevsky, around 1918-21, the period of the rewriting of his seminal commentary on Romans - the bombshell on the playground of the theologians, as Karl Adam put it.