The Barmen Declaration or The Theological Declaration of Barmen 1934 (Die Barmer Theologische Erklärung) is a statement of the Confessing Church opposing the Nazi-supported "German Christians" movement known for its anti-Semitism and extreme nationalism. More specifically, The Barmen Declaration rejects (i.) the subordination of the Church to the state (8.22–3) and (ii.) the subordination of the Word and Spirit to the Church. "8.27 We reject the false doctrine, as though the Church in human arrogance could place the Word and work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans." On the contrary, The Declaration proclaims that the Church "is solely Christ's property, and that it lives and wants to live solely from his comfort and from his direction in the expectation of his appearance." (8.17) Rejecting domestication of the Word in the Church, The Declaration points to the inalienable lordship of Jesus Christ by the Spirit and to the external character of church unity which "can come only from the Word of God in faith through the Holy Spirit. Thus alone is the Church renewed" (8.01): it submits itself explicitly and radically to Holy Scripture as God's gracious Word.
The Declaration was mostly written by Reformed theologian Karl Barth as well as in part by other Confessing Church leaders, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Its ecumenical nature can be seen by its inclusion in the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) [1] and the Book of Order of the world wide Moravian Unity, the Unitas Fratrum. Its name comes from its adoption by church representatives who had met in 1934 in the German town of Barmen.
One of the main purposes of the Declaration was to establish a three-church confessional consensus opposing pro-nazi "German Christianity". These three churches were Lutheran, Reformed, and United.
After 1945, the threat of pro-nazi "German Christianity" abated, providing several conservative Lutheran theologians a fresh new era in which to speak out against Barmen for having challenged four tenets of traditional Lutheranism: their Orders of creation, natural revelation, the doctrine of the two kingdoms, and the relationship between Law and Gospel.[1]