Dialectical Theology

The predominantly young adherents of dialectical theology abandoned 19th century forms of mediatized revelation. They rediscovered God’s divinity for themselves and favored a subjectivity of God defined as absolute.

The social breakthrough of the modern age together with the reality of a democratic and parliamentary constitution could not be integrated in the new theological thought one-to-one. A true theology of democracy (Nowak) was nowhere to be found among these new theological approaches.

Given their radical rejection of the world, the proponents of dialectical theology maintained a fundamental theological detachment from politics, even though Barth himself supported the SPD politically. They resolutely opposed every political theology. They criticized National Socialism theologically and, given their eschatological radicalism and Christological centrism, radically rejected every religious transfiguration of historical facts and natural orders.