Overview

Recent political events around the world have raised the spectre of an impending collapse of democratic institutions. Contemporary concerns about the decline of liberal democracy are reminicent to the tumult of the 1930s and 1940s in Europe. Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived in Germany during the rise of National Socialism, and each reflected on what the rise of totalitarianism meant for the aspirations of modern politics. Engaging the realities of totalitarian terror, they avoided despairing rejections of modern society. Beginning with Barth in the wake of the First World War, following Bonhoeffer through the 1930s and 1940s in Nazi Germany, and concluding with Barth's post-war reflections in the 1950s, this study explores how these figures reflected on modern society during this turbulent time and how their work is relevant to the current crisis of modern democracy.

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9780198867517

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This is a timely monograph with several notable strengths. The writing style is crisp, the summaries deft, the quotations judiciously chosen. It is refreshing to see the author tap a number of not-very-well-known sources, such as the circular letters Barth wrote during the Second World War. Perhaps the chief virtue of Barth, Bonhoeffer, and Modern Politics is (as the title implies) to bring the work of these two vital theologians into conversation with contemporary political theorists such as Charles Taylor, Francis Fukuyama, and Jeffrey Stout. The effect of this encounter is to see again with new clarity how even secular political aspirations are founded on theological and, indeed, eschatological assumptions. * Bo Helmich, Reading Religion * In Barth, Bonhoeffer, and Modern Politics, Mauldin provides a judicious, often profound exploration of highly relevant themes for contemporary society. He effectively recasts current discussions about the legitimacy of modern liberalism through a close analysis of pertinent theological perspectives on the rise of National Socialism. * David S. Robinson, Modern Theology *

Author Information

Joshua Mauldin is Associate Director of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton.

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