Karl Barth | The PostBarthian

All Blog Posts With Tag: Karl Barth

Book Announcement: Marty Folsom’s Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatic’s For Everyone Vol. 1 (August 7, 2022)

Marty Folsom Karl Barth Church Dogmatics For Everyone Vol 1

My good friend Dr. Marty Folsom has published the first volume in his new book-series Karl Barth's Church Dogmatic's For Everyone Vol. 1. Each volume corresponds to a volume of Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics, hence the subtitle "The Doctrine of the Word of God". The book is like a traveler's guide […]

The Angels and the Easter Bunny: Karl Barth on the difference between good saga and bad (May 12, 2022)

How are the angels in the Bible different than the Easter Bunny in traditional folklore? In Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics III/3, paragraph §51 "The Kingdom of Heaven, The Ambassadors of God, and their Opponents", he answers that "the angels and the March Hare are two different things" [1] but it […]

Karl Barth’s rejection of the preexistent Word of God: Bruce McCormack’s response to Richard Bauckham (April 15, 2022)

Karl Barth famously argued that Jesus has always possessed a human nature from the beginning of creation, therefore a so-called preexistent Word of God (i.e. Logos) without human nature never existed. Karl Barth affirmed the Virgin Birth, but this does not mean that the second person (or mode-of-being as Barth […]

Karl Barth and the Limits of Angelology (December 28, 2021)

What truth may we speak about angels? It is a daunting theological locus. Of angels, Karl Barth says “How are we to steer a way between this Scylla and Charybdis, between the far too interesting mythology of the ancients and the far too uninteresting ‘demythologization’ of most of the moderns?” […]

REVIEW: Mark R. Lindsay’s God Has Chosen: The Doctrine of Election Through Christian History (December 21, 2020)

Dr. Mark A. Lindsay's new book God Has Chosen: The Doctrine of Election Through Christian History (2020) published by IVP Academic is an engaging history of the doctrine of election that is easy to read and is not laden with technical jargon. Lindsay does a great job of summarizing the […]

The Angels Laugh at Old Karl Barth (May 23, 2020)

Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics is the greatest theological achievement of the modern era, and yet Barth often remarked in humility that God laughs at his Dogmatics. My friend Dr. Marty Folsom reminded me of the following famous and frequently quoted example of Barth's humble view of his marvelous achievement: "The angels laugh at old […]

Mnemonics for Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics (feat. Robert McAfee Brown) (February 19, 2020)

Robert McAfee Brown's The Collect'd Writings of St. Hereticus is a hilarious guidebook for heretics everywhere and a formidable Life of St. Hereticus. Robert. M. Brown (not to be confused with Raymond E. Brown) incorporates copious references to Karl Barth throughout the book, mostly in jest, but also at times surprisingly […]

For liberal theology the virgin birth is a stumbling block which is best removed. For liberation theology it is a piece of bread. – Dorothee Sölle (November 16, 2019)

Dorothee Sölle (1929–2003) analyzes the virgin birth from the perspective of liberation theology and feminist theology in her book Thinking About God: An Introduction to Theology. Sölle argues that the doctrine of the virgin birth has been polarized into two extremes by orthodox and liberal theology. She argues that orthodoxy […]

In the bible, Jesus Christ prays for the whole world and this includes all humanity: those who pray and those who do not yet pray. – Karl Barth (November 8, 2019)

In the Scriptures, Jesus Christ is said to pray for the whole world. But who is the 'whole world'? I found the following letter in Karl Barth Letters: 1961-1968, where Karl Barth defines the 'whole world' as 'all humans', including all those who do pray and all those who do […]

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ is a giant Gnostic snake and worships the deity of evolution – Karl Barth (November 1, 2019)

Karl Barth wrote two famous letters in August 1963 wherein he condemned Pierre Teilhard de Chardin SJ (1881 – 1955) as a "giant gnostic snake" that has swallowed up Jesus Christ in order to worship the "deity of evolution", and that Emil Brunner is a "harmless blind-worm" in comparison to […]