ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Christian ethics in its relation to that particular history which is described biblically. For narrative is a literary category appropriate to the task of depicting it in its biblical attestation. Barth develops the ethical ramification of God's Yes in part through narrative interpretations of biblical materials. The history of God in Christ may also be more specifically described in reference to particular moral problems. Barth's treatment of suicide specifies his more general position concerning the respect owed to human life. The birth of Christ, in which God takes on human life, stands as the great revelation of the respect owed to it in correspondence with God's valuing of it. The task of Christian ethics is to argue from what that scriptural world depicts, the history of God in relation to Israel and Jesus, to conclusions about the spheres of God's activity relevant to the Christian's conforming action and behavior.
