BETWEEN TWO CITIES

May 10, 1886: Karl Barth, the most important Protestant theologian of the twentieth century and opponent of theological liberalism and political fascism (especially under Hitler), is born in Basel, Switzerland. When asked in 1962 (on his one visit to America) how he would summarize the essence of the millions of words he had published, he replied, “Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so“

I have read with some difficulty, some of Barth’s works, but only a small percentage. His famous works include:
Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans where he argued that the God who is revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus challenges and overthrows any attempt to ally God with human cultures, achievements, or possessions.
His most distinguished work is his Church Dogmatics (14 volume set costs $537.97) which represents the pinnacle of Barth’s achievement as a theologian. Church Dogmatics runs to over six million words and 9,000 pages – one of the longest works of systematic theology ever written. The Church Dogmatics is in five volumes: the Doctrine of the Word of God, the Doctrine of God, the Doctrine of Creation, the Doctrine of Reconciliation and the Doctrine of Redemption. Barth’s planned fifth volume was never written and the fourth volume’s final part-volume was unfinished. I have a one volume book of selections from Church Dogmatics that is reasonably priced.

Though he was a Protestant theologian, Pope Pius XII is often claimed to have said Barth was “the greatest theologian since Thomas Aquinas,” though Scottish Roman Catholic priest and scholar, Fergus Kerr, observed that “there is never chapter and verse for the quotation” and it is sometimes attributed to Pope Paul VI instead.

Barth was featured on the cover of the 20 April 1962 issue of Time magazine, an indication that his influence had reached out of academic and ecclesiastical circles and into mainstream American religious culture.

Barth died on 10 December 1968, at his home in Basel, Switzerland.

Karl Barth in Literature

In John Updike‘s Roger’s Version, Roger Lambert is a professor of religion. Lambert is influenced by the works of Karl Barth. That is the primary reason that he rejects his student’s attempt to use computational methods to understand God.

Harry Mulisch‘s The Discovery of Heaven makes mentions of Barth’s Church Dogmatics, as does David Markson‘s The Last Novel. In the case of Mulisch and Markson, it is the ambitious nature of the Church Dogmatics that seems to be of significance. In the case of Updike, it is the emphasis on the idea of God as “Wholly Other” that is emphasized.

In Marilynne Robinson‘s Gilead, the preacher John Ames reveres Barth’s “Epistle to the Romans” and refers to it as his favorite book other than the Bible.

Whittaker Chambers cites Barth in nearly all his books: Witness (p. 507), Cold Friday (p. 194), and Odyssey of a Friend (pp. 201, 231).

In Flannery O’Connor‘s letter to Brainard Cheney, she said, “I distrust folks who have ugly things to say about Karl Barth. I like old Barth. He throws the furniture around.”

— from Christianity Today’s Church in History Daily Newsletter and from Wikipedia