Karl Barth Quotes

       Karl Barth
       1886-1968
      
       Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century.
      
       Beginning with his experience as a pastor, he rejected his training in the predominant liberal theology typical of 19th-century Protestantism. Instead he embarked on a new theological path initially called dialectical theology, due to its stress on the paradoxical nature of divine truth (e.g., God's relationship to humanity embodies both grace and judgment). Other critics have referred to Barth as the father of neo-orthodoxy -- a term emphatically rejected by Barth himself. The most accurate description of his work might be "a theology of the Word." Barth's theological thought emphasized the sovereignty of God, particularly through his innovative doctrine of election.
      
       Barth tries to recover the Doctrine of the Trinity in theology from its putative loss in liberalism. His argument follows from the idea that God is the object of God's own self-knowledge, and revelation in the Bible means the self-unveiling to humanity of the God who cannot be discovered by humanity simply through its own efforts.

It may be that when the angels go about their task praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they are together en famille they play Mozart.     Topics: Angels Jews have God's promise and if we Christians have it, too, then it is only as those chosen with them, as guests in their house, that we are new wood grafted onto their tree.     Topics: Christians Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life.     Topics: Conscience What God chooses for us children of men is always the best.     Topics: Contentment Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is himself the way.     Topics: Examples, Jesus Faith in God's revelation has nothing to do with an ideology which glorifies the status quo.     Topics: Faith Faith is never identical with piety.     Topics: Faith, Piety The statement that 'God is dead' comes from Nietzsche and has recently been trumpeted abroad by some German and American theologians. But the good Lord has not died of this; He who dwells in the heaven laughs at them.     Topics: God, Atheism, America Sin is not confined to the evil things we do. It is the evil within us, the evil which we are.     Topics: Good and Evil Men have never been good, they are not good and they never will be good.     Topics: Good and Evil, Men Let us hear what the Bible says and what we as Christians are called to hear together: By grace you have been saved.     Topics: Grace, The Bible Grace must find expression in life, otherwise it is not grace.     Topics: Grace