The Being of God’s Time: The Problem of Time in Barth’s Church Dogmatics and Heidegger’s Being and Time

• Main Author: Rajesh Sampath
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The International Academic Forum 2017-01-01
• Series: IAFOR Journal of Ethics, Religion & Philosophy
• Subjects: being; God; time; theology; fundamental ontology; Barth; Heidegger
• Online Access: https://iafor.org/journal/iafor-journal-of-ethics-religion-and-philosophy/volume-3-issue-1/article-2/

This paper aims to compare and contrast Barth and Heidegger on the question of time. Although Barth speaks from the theological standpoint and Heidegger considers theology as a form of an "ontic science" distinct from his fundamental ontology in Being and Time, I pose the following question: To what extent can an appropriation of Barth, ironically, transcend the limits of Heidegger’s Being and Time, which could not offer its missing division III? We hypothesize that this step beyond Being and Time can help frame a research agenda to frame – ontologically – the problem of the very of Being of God’s time. And this agenda would go beyond the limits of Barthian theology on the one hand and Heidegger’s first two divisions of Being and Time on the other.