Today begins my official foray into Karl Barth's Epistle to the Romans. This text is often referred to as a theological atom bomb dropped right into the midst of early 20th century protestant liberal theology. I have dabbled with this book before, but this will be a sustained effort to engage with this most significant theological work. Please be sure to check back regularly, because I plan to be blogging my way through the book. Also, be sure to check out my friend Philip Baker’s blog (link to follow soon), as he will be reading through Epistle to the Romans along with me this summer.
1 comment:
Before plunging headlong into a celebration of the "atom bomb" you suggest that Barth "dropped into liberal theology," we would be remiss--and greatly misinformed-- if we did not consider how Francis Schaeffer describes Karl Barth in "The God Who is There", as Barth essentially did in theology what those who were likewise operating below what Shaeffer describes as the "line of despair" were doing in the areas of philosophy, all of the arts, and in general culture: promoting relativism and/or existentialism. It was first in philosophy, with Hegel and Kierkegaard, that thinking below the "line of despair" first appeared; you will need to read Schaeffer's book to fully understand all that is meant by the line of despair he presents and its significance in numerous dimensions of life. Schaeffer writes: "What is this despair? It arises from the abandonment of the hope of a unified answer for knowledge and for life"; He then describes Barth as "opening the door to the existentialistic leap in theology," following it with the staement: "[His] position rests on a liberal view of scripture". I do not know how Barth could have ever been perceived as anything but the liberal he was...which is why postmoderns and emergents like him so much.
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