The Universal and Particular in Karl Barth’s Christological Anthropology

This book engages Karl Barth’s Christological anthropology in order to provide a Christian account of identity that affirms both humanity’s universally shared identity in Jesus and each person’s particular identities, especially regarding sex, gender, and sexuality.

This unfolds through highlighting the significance of Barth’s rejection of Natural Theology, affirmation of science, the necessity of Jesus’ embodied particularity for the universality of his person and work, and the corresponding anthropological affirmation of each person’s unique embodiment. Using Barth’s primary methodological and Christological commitments, this book remedies Barth’s inconsistencies within his ordered male/female dyad and builds on Barth’s work to provide a Christian account of identity that affirms the universal humanity and unique particularity of persons within and outside of the cisgendered heteronormative male/female dyad, thus creating a shared starting point for Christians in conversations of ethics.

Offering Barth’s Christological anthropology as a corrective to both essentialism and subjectivism, and as a meaningful resource for rethinking identity, this book will be of interest to scholars in Religious Studies and Theology, Anthropology, and Gender Studies.