God or the subject? Karl Barth's critique of the "turn to the subject"

In this article, I argue that Barth resists the modern "turn to the subject" and that important features of his approach can be explained as being motivated by this resistance. Under the parameters of this "turn", the human subject occupies a position which should be reserved for God. As an antidote to this turn, Barth suggests an exchange of subjects: The role that the subject occupies under subjectivist parameters should be taken over by a Trinitarian notion of God. This suggestion explains to a great extent the approach he takes since his famous "breakthrough" and explains also his harsh rejection of Brunner. © Walter de Gruyter 2007.