“Theology After Gulag, Bucha, and Beyond” How Can Karl Barth’s Theology Contribute to Reorientation in the Contemporary European Crisis? A Post-Soviet Case

In the face of the challenges of the post-Soviet resurgence of religion, and the framing of the current war in Ukraine as a metaphysical war, what can we gain from Barth’s theology, but also, what are the pitfalls for theologians that we can learn to avoid? These questions determine the background of this contribution, investigating the field of an interdisciplinary and interreligious Theology after Gulag, Bucha, and beyond. The question “how to do credible theology in the 21st century?" is urged by the phenomenon of extreme dehumanization: the state of utmost exhaustion when everything human leaves a human being, which we know from Gulag, Auschwitz, and any other place of extreme exhaustion. Extreme dehumanization is a challenge for any anthropology, but also for classical Christology, and for theology proper. After the confrontation with extreme dehumanization, it takes much to say “See the Man, Ecce Homo” or to repeat after Barth “God is God.” This contribution aims to discuss Barth’s theological response to the question how religion is not ideology in its relevance for contemporary Russia. I refer, however, also to the possibilities within Orthodox theology itself for doing credible Theology after Gulag, Bucha, and beyond, in the direction suggested by Barth.