Barth on Providence

Karl Barth develops his mature doctrine of providence in volume III, part 3 of the Church Dogmatics (CD). This chapter looks at how Barth lays out the outlook of the doctrine by surveying and critiquing its history, especially of Reformed theology that stems from John Calvin and leads up to Friedrich Schleiermacher. It discusses his understanding of the internal, doctrinal relationship of providence with predestination and creation and finally to his material discussion of this doctrine. Barth places the doctrine of predestination within the doctrine of God in the second volume of the Church Dogmatics, and the doctrine of providence within the doctrine of creation in the third volume. Barth gives four concrete examples of the signs of the divine ruling in general history, and they move from the inner to the outer: the history of Holy Scripture, the history of the church, the history of Jews, and the limitation of human life.