In a chapter from Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics titled, "Karl Barth and the Displacement of Natural Law in Contemporary Protestant Thought," Stephen J. Grabill, a research scholar at the Acton Institute, traces the impact of the Barth-Brunner debate (itself recently republished by Wipf and Stock) on the development of twentieth-century Protestant ethics.
Grabill observes,
While the already weakened state of natural theology in the Reformed tradition was exacerbated by Barth’s assault on Protestant orthodoxy, it makes sense that during the period of Barthian hegemony (1934-1990) interest in related doctrines such as natural revelation and natural law would likewise atrophy given the logical thread connecting them to natural theology (21).Noting a development in Barth's thought, which in the later period tended to give greater weight to issues related "to the structures of human existence, society, ethics, and natural moral norms," while never abandoning his rejection of natural law, Grabill argues that "the analyst give less priority to his statements in the 1934 debate and the 1937-1938 Gifford Lectures and more to the Church Dogmatics and the shorter political tracts written during World War II" (29).
In a review of Grabill's book hosted on the Center for Barth Studies website and critical of Grabill's engagement with Barth, W. Travis McMaken writes, "If the Reformed natural law tradition is to be rediscovered and rehabilitated after Barth, it will have to be done in deep conversation with Barth."
This judgment underscores the importance of Barth to contemporary theology and theological historiography. And while interpretations of Barth and his impact will surely continue to differ, there seems to be unanimous consensus that the Church Dogmatics represents Barth's comprehensive and mature theological expression.
The research tools provided in the Logos Bible Software edition of the Church Dogmatics provide powerful ways of examining these questions. We can see how often and in what ways Barth depends on various Reformers (e.g. his citations of Calvin [908 total], Luther [836 total], Melanchthon [115 total], Zwingli, [93 total], Bullinger [28 total], W. Musculus [8 total], et al.). With the power of linked collections in the Logos software, we can also refer to these citations and references in their original contexts, so that Barth's references to Calvin's Institutes or Luther's Works can be brought up with a single click on a live in-text link.
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