Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Pages
96
Publication
Richmond, John Knox Press [1960]
Description
Karl Barth is generally regared as the greatest Protestant thinker of modern times. The three essays in this book, "The Humanity of God," "Evangelical Theology in the 19th Century," and "The Gift of Freedom," show how Barth's later work moved beyond his revolt against the theology dominant in the first decades of the twentieth century.
User reviews
LibraryThing member David_Brown
This is a quick read, and certainly a much more accessible introduction to Barth's thought that the infamous and multi-volumed Church Dogmatics. Very early in the three essays we see Barth's confusion in the midst of theological history: he claims that Kierkegaard had "no influence" on 19th century
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theology, yet most historians would agree that, when Barth wrote his commentary on Romans that launched the movement of neo-orthodoxy, he was standing on Kierkegaard's shoulders. He spends a significant amount of the essays defending his definition of evangelical theology and what he calls the "humanity" of God. However, in his discussion of God's human-ness, he lapses into the process theology error of claiming that God needs humans in such a way that He cannot function without them. He also articulates his lapse into universalism, as well as hinting at his famous non-answers to the accusations in this regard by peers. All in all, an easy read by Barth's standards, but I find his thought to be seriously wanting. What I appreciated most is his closing to the essays, in which he encouraged his audience to approach the discipline of theology accepting each other's faults in thought while working toward a common goal (essentially, the edification of the saints), and not tearing each other down. Those closing paragraphs earned a star of this rating in and of themselves, and is a call that all in the discipline of theology today would do well to take to heart. Show Less
Subjects
Original publication date
1961 (UK)