Karl Barth on Exegesis

“We have been studying cheerfully and seriously. As far as I was concerned it could have continued in that way, and I had already resigned myself to having my grave here by the Rhine! …And now the end has come. So listen to my piece of advice: exegesis, exegesis, and yet more exegesis! Keep to the word, to the scripture that has been given to us.”

Karl Barth on the occasion of his farewell to his students in Bonn prior to his expulsion from Germany in 1935.

Karl Barth on the Virgin Birth

If anyone thinks Barth is an old-school liberal, they really need to read CD I/2.172-202 on the "Miracle of Christmas". I found his criticism of Emil Brunner most amusing [Brunner rejects the virgin birth]. Barth writes: "Brunner's contribution to this matter in his more recent book, Man in Revolt, is so bad that my only possible attitude to it is silence." That is a shalacking!

Karl Barth on the "Faithfulness of Christ"

For the Barthophiles out there:

"The fact that I live in the faith of the Son of God, in my faith in him, has its basis in the fact that He Himself, the Son of God, first believed for me ... the great work of faith has already been done by the One whom I follow in my faith, even before I believe, even if I no longer believe, in such a way that He is always, as Heb 12:2 puts it, the originator and completer of our faith ... His faith is the victory which has overcome the world"

CD II/2, 559.

Engaging with Barth

Whether you like Barth or not, if you are interested in theology, then you have to do business with him. One book that engages with Barth from an evangelical point of view is, of course, Engaging with Barth. This book has its own webpage which describes the volume and the contributors. Do check it out.

Barthians often get written off as neo-liberals by some Evangelicals while some Barthians write off Evangelicals as fundamentalists who can smile. I tend to think of Barthians and Evangelicals as rival siblings striving to be the heirs of the Reformers in the post-enlightenment era. Both camps are striving to move towards an orthodox centre from the extremes of liberalism and fundamentalism.

Children's Talks: Bart Simpon and Karl Barth

Now I've heard it all. I came across a children's church talk involving Bart Simpson and Karl Barth!

Karl Barth on Vegetarians

I have never met so many vegetarians since coming to the UK. I'm more of Peteresque, "kill and eat" kind of a guy. If found interesting then, Barth's comments on Romans 14 about vegetarians:

"Contrasted with the strong man is the weak man who – eateth only vegetables. This, at any rate, is a clear, concrete standpoint. The uninstructed, non-Pauline man has this advantage at least. His ambiguity is not at once obvious; he does, at any rate, do something. Party-men, Sectarians, Churchmen, are vigorous and full of life. They occupy a position. They have pronounce characteristics. Their lives form a proper subject for the biographer. They are concerned with ‘deeds and facts’. Ranged behind the vegetable eaters at Rome we see the devotees of Orpheus and of Dionysus, the Neo-Pythagoreans, the Therapeutes, and the Essences, of the Ancient World; the Monks of the Middle Ages; the Baptists of the Age of the Reformation; the Total Abstainers, the Open-Air Enthusiasts and the Vegetarians of the Present Day."

This passage needs to be put in context of what Barth says about freedom, detachment, and the true Paulinist; however, Pagans and Baptists and Vegetarians are just different manifestations of the same problem.