Dialectical theology is the name given to a movement of thought which appeared within Protestant theology after the First World War and which at that time held the place in theologico-philosophical debates which the problems of demythologization and existential interpretation have occupied since the Second World War. Its chief protagonists were K. Barth, E. Thurneysen, E. Brunner, F. Gogarten and R. Bultmann.

1. The beginnings of dialectical theology. The common viewpoint of these theologians was presented to the public in the course of the same year. Between 1…