ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the fundamental theological presupposition behind Barth's understanding of election which, as the major section of Church Dogmatics (CD) IV, sets the scene and creates the possibility for Jewish-Christian dialogue. It explore three of the most significant and yet in some ways most problematic sections of CD IV, to try and determine the extent to which the promise for Jewish-Christian harmony mentioned above takes shape within the structural and material centre of Barth's theology, the doctrine of reconciliation. Thus, in Soloveitchik's view, Barth was quite justified in shaping his dogmatic theology around an unapologetically Christian corebuts equally; a Jewish theology should be unapologetically Jewish. The reconciliation of God and humanity thus has its presupposition in the unshakeable and unalterable faithfulness of God to Israel which Barth, contrary to traditional assumptions, insists is based not on law but on grace.
