Foundation for Reformed Theology

Greetings!

Karl Barth wrote this on creation and marriage:

The author [of Genesis 2] wishes to say that the mutual relationship of man and woman in historical reality, their mutual love and adherence in marriage, conform to that which is laid down concerning them in the creation narrative. When a man forsakes his father and mother, i.e., his first and nearest and closest ties; when he cuts himself loose from his most natural roots and thus becomes an independent man; when he finds in this woman the Thou without which he cannot be I, this man; when he "cleaves" to this Thou, i.e., is related to it with the same power with which he is I; when he turns to this woman with the same necessity with which he is this man; when with this other, an apparent stranger yet no longer a stranger to him, but his nearest and dearest, he becomes one flesh, an absolutely integrated whole; when he can now be man only in conjunction with her--then it is true that she is "woman," "this," "bone of his bones," because she is "taken out of Man."

In this unheard of process, by which woman assumes so decisive and transcendent a meaning for man, it is confirmed that it was not good for man to be alone; that he really needed a helpmeet, and that without the existence of this helpmeet his own creation would really not have been complete. It is also confirmed that woman is his true glory: his radiant glory; but also--as indicated by the fact that he severs his roots and leaves his father and mother--his strange glory, to be realised only in sacrifice, pain and mortal peril.

It is also confirmed that man had to complete his own creation according to the will and purpose of God by electing woman and saying Yes to her existence before him, thus also saying Yes to God's whole creation, and finally and supremely to his own humanity. What we have here, then, is simply a revelation of the fact that the will and purpose of God in this matter were no game but deadly serious, and that His creation was the basis of all reality. Things have to happen as they do when man and woman love each other and are married; man has to be the one who seeks, desires, sacrifices and is utterly dependent on woman for the fulfilment of his relationship to her, so that to this extent he is the weaker half, because all this is rooted and grounded in the divine creation and therefore in the divine will and purpose.

The meaning of the author is thus that in its historical reality, in its actual realisation in mutual love, the relationship of man and woman is intended and has to be understood, established and inwardly fashioned as described in the account of their creation. This is the prototype from which it cannot depart without risking its destruction. Hence if it takes place that a man leaves his father and his mother, and cleaves to his wife, to become one flesh with her, this is not something arbitrary or accidental but conformable to what begins in creation. Everything depends, therefore, upon man's really seeking and finding the good thing without which his own humanity is incomplete, and on woman's being this good thing for him. This act, then, must really be the act which completes the emergence of man, and the decision and choice of his free thought and word.

Man's tearing himself away from his roots must not be a rebellious self-emancipation, but the offering of the required sacrifice, the realisation of the autonomy attained and granted at this cost. He must not seek his I but his Thou--his "help meet." He must be sure that she is "this," "bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh." In the manifold meaning of the concept he must really seek and find in her his own glory. And she for her part must desire only to be his glory. The will and purpose of God for both must find realisation in this event. It would bode ill for both man and woman if the event rested on accident and arbitrariness or blunder and misunderstanding.

Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, III/1, pp. 304-306.

Dr. James C. Goodloe IVThank you for your interest in the historical theology of the church.

Grace and Peace,

Dr. James C. Goodloe IV, Executive
    Director

Foundation for Reformed Theology

4103 Monument Avenue

Richmond, Virginia 23230

 

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