In September 1921 Barth wrote the preface to his second edition of The Epistle to the Romans, and one can fairly regard the second edition as written a period of intense and unpredictable turmoil after August 1918 (the date of the preface to the first edition), early 1919 (publication and critical reception), and mid-1921: Armistice and German capitulation, Swiss general strike, European famine, military demobilization (less prominent but still present in Switzerland), and the "Spanish" H1N1 influenza pandemic. General crisis pervades this historical backdrop, and lent authenticity to the concept of Krisis that Barth so effectively deployed in the second edition.
Krisis is a distinctive development in the second edition; Barth used the term only once in the first (and not in particularly theological sense, um der Gleichartigkeit der Krisis willen, in der alle Menschen aller Stufen immer wieder vor Gott stehen ("thanks to the similarity of the Krisis in which humans of all ranks stand before God"). By contrast, Barth introduces Krisis in the preface to the second edition. He responded to the charge that he imposed his meanings upon the text of Romans rather than drawing meaning from it --the charge of eisegesis in place of exegesis--"and that my method implies this" (Der Verdacht, hier werde mehr ein- als ausgelegt, ist ja wirklich das Naheliegendste, was man über meinen ganzen Versuch sagen kann.) He continued:
Wenn ich ein „System” habe, so besteht es darin, daß ich das, was Kierkegaard den „unendlichen qualitativen Unterschied” von Zeit und Ewigkeit genannt hat, in seiner negativen und positiven Bedeutung möglichst beharrlich im Auge behalte, „Gott ist im Himmel und du auf Erden”. Die Beziehung dieses Gottes zu diesem Menschen . . . ist für mich das Thema der Bibel und die Summe der Philosophie in Einem. Die Philosophen nennen diese Krisis des menschlichen Erkennens den Ursprung. Die Bibel sieht an diesem Kreuzweg Jesus Christus.
I translate this as:
If I have a system, it consists in this, that I keep in view as tenaciously as possible, in both its negative and positive sense, that which Kierkegaard termed the "infinite qualitative distinction" between time and eternity". "God is in heaven and you are on earth." The relation of this God and this human . . . is for me the theme of the Bible and the sum total of philosophy in one. The philosophers call this Krisis the origin of human recognizing. The Bible looks at [this] crossroad [as] Jesus Christ."
Sir Edwyn Hoskyns by distinction translated:
. . . if I have a system, it is limited to a recognition of what Kierkegaard called the 'infinite qualitative distinction' between time and eternity, and to my regarding this as possessing negative as well as positive significance: "God is in heaven and thou art on earth." The relation between such a God and such a man . . . is for me the theme of the Bible and the essence of philosophy. Philosophers name this KRISIS of human perception—the Prime Cause: the Bible beholds the same cross-roads—the figure of Jesus Christ.
One can see here how Hoskyns subtly renders Barth more as a Cambridge don than as a brilliant, activist pastor. It is no denigration of such dons to note that their métier is careful nuance, and such nuances can tire easily. By translating des menschlichen Erkennens den Ursprung as the Prime Cause (of human perception), Hoskyns imports a philosophical term more allusive to St. Thomas than Barth's text really allows. (For example: Cum igitur Deus sit prima causa universalis non unius generis tantum, sed totius entis, impossibile est quod aliquid contingat; ST I:103:7, "Therefore as God is the first universal cause, not of one genus only, but of all being in general, it is impossible for anything to occur" [outside of God's governing].). "Philosophers calls this Krisis the origins of human recognizing" (or perceiving): Erkennens in the text is not exactly the same as its relative Erkentnis. The phrase "the essence of philosophy" shies away from Barth's declarative unity between the theme of the Bible and the sum total (Summe not Summa) of philosophy.
In the first usage of the critical term Krisis, Barth's received English translation already steers in a more philosophical and less expressive direction. Barth thanks his brother, the philosopher Heinrich Barth, for leading him "to recognize the importance" of Plato and Kant, but Karl does not wish to be philosopher in the academic sense, "I have also paid more attention to what may be culled form the writings of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky that is of importance for the interpretation of the New Testament. The latter I owe more particularly to the hints given me by Edward Thurneysen" —(und das vermehrte Aufmerken auf das, was aus Kierkegaard und Dostojewski für das Verständnis des neuen Testamentes zu gewinnen ist, wobei mir besonders die Winke von Eduard Thurneysen erleuchtend gewesen sind.).
As Barth's concept and usage of Krisis develops in the second edition, it becomes a key to understanding his revolutionary theological reading of The Epistle to the Romans.