(Barth 2004b:703)In personal correspondence conducted in 1952 between Barth and the South African theologian Ben Marais, the former adamantly expressed his opposition to the system of apartheid, which he regarded as a form of National Socialism (De Cruchy 1988:141143). Marais asked Barth whether the Bible, according to his view, prescribed, permitted, or prohibited the existence of a volkskerk (meaning an ethnic church). Barth's response was the last-mentioned. To Marais' asking whether all racial mixture was against the will and ordinance of God, Barth declared that he rejected such a belief as being part of Nazi theology.Stanley Hauerwas (2002) explores natural theology and Barthian witness in depth in his 2001 Gifford Lectures. He asserts that Barth's discovery that the proper subject of theology is God cannot be seen independently of the theologian's cultural criticism (Hauerwas 2002:156, 170). The positive converse to Barth's aversion to a natural theology can be found in his appreciation of the an/enhypostacy in Christology post-Chalcedon (451 A.D.), which resulted in the positioning of Christ on the central stage. Barth (1991:157) formulates such an understanding as follows: 'The humanity of Christ, although it is body and soul, and an individual, is nothing subsistent or real in itself. Thus it did not exist prior to its union with the Logos. It has no independent existence alongside or apart from him. Those who want to see revelation in the idea of humanity as such are grasping at something that in itself is not just meaningless but nonexistent.' In terms of such thinking, Christ is the interface between God and man, as it is in Him that God and man meet (Barth 1967:43). Christ's role as the interface is also the truth, which is simultaneously the prima, and the ultima, veritas (Barth 1979:26).Taking such as the point of departure also links up directly with the first doctrine of the Barmen Thesen of 1934, in which Barth played the leading role. The rise of National Socialism in Germany, and the Messianic role that Hitler began adopting in the movement, alerted Barth (2004b:172) to the dangers that lay ahead. The Barmen declaration pertinently concerns the revelation that can take place only through Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ, as He is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God, whom we have to hear and whom we have to trust and obey in life and in death. We condemn the false doctrine that the Church can and must recognise as God's revelation other events and powers, forms and truths, apart from and alongside this one Word of God. (Barth 2004a:174)Hauerwas criticises those theologians who regard Barth as supporting 'theological metaphysics' (2002:142) and 'system coercion' (2002:154), as well as of being 'totalitarian and imperialistic' (2002:169) and 'a dogmatic theologian' (2002:178), stating that theology has no stake in imitating, or even conversing with, other sciences (2002:202). Barr's sharp criticism is noteworthy in this regard. He concludes not only that 'From beginning to end Barthianism was above all an intellectual, philosophical-dogmatic, system' (Barr 1994:103), but that 'Barth broke his own principles: his whole approach to exegesis