Karl Barth, b. Basel, Switzerland, May 10, 1886, d. Dec. 9, 1968, is considered by some he greatest Protestant theologian of the 20th century and possibly the greatest since the Reformation. More than anyone else, Barth inspired and led the renaissance of theology that took place from about 1920 to 1950. He studied at the universities of Bern, Berlin, Tubingen, and Marburg and held pastorates in Switzerland between 1909 and 1921. During this time, he became known as a radical critic both of the prevailing liberal theology and of the social order. Liberal theology, Barth believed, had accommodated Christianity to modern culture. The crisis of World War I was in part a symptom of this unholy alliance. In hi\par famous commentary on Romans (1919), Barth stressed the discontinuity between the Christian message and the world. God is the wholly other; he is known only in his revelation; he is not the patron saint of culture, but its judge.

Between 1921 and 1935, Barth held professorships at Gottingen, Munster, and Bonn. He engaged in controversy with Adolf von Harnack, holding that the latter's scientific theology is only a preliminary to the true task of theology, which is identical with that of preaching. With the rise of Adolf Hitler, Barth emerged as a leader of the church opposition to Nazi control, expressed in the Barmen Declaration of 1934. Deprived of his chair at Bonn, he returned to Switzerland and from 1935 until his retirement in 1962 was professor at Basel, exercising a worldwide influence.

During this period he worked on his Church Dogmatics (1932-67), a multivolume work of great richness that was unfinished at his death. Although he modified some of his early positions, he continued to maintain that theology is concerned only with unfolding the revealed word attested in the Bible and has no place for natural theology or the insights of non-Christian religions. He held that religion is humankind's attempt to grasp at God and is therefore diametrically opposed to revelation, in which God has come to humans through Christ.

Although Barth's uncompromising position was a great strength during the period of Nazi power, his views were increasingly subjected to criticism in the following decades. Some argue that he was too negative in his estimate of humankind and its reasoning powers and too narrow in limiting revelation to the biblical tradition, thus excluding the non-Christian religions.

WORKS

Biggar, N., The Hastening That Waits: Karl Barth's Ethics (1993)
Busch, E., Karl Barth, 2d ed. (1994)
Hunsinger, G., How to Read Karl Barth (1991)
Jungel, E., Karl Barth: A Theological Legacy (1986)
Kung, H., Justification: The Doctrine of Karl Barth and a Catholic Reflection (1964)
Stroble, P., The Social Ontology of Karl Barth (1994)
Sykes, S. W., Karl Barth: Studies of His Theological Method (1979)
 

                                                                       -- John Macquarrie