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The Word of God & the Word of Man
This book is perhaps the best introduction for readers who are new to Karl Barth, while Barthians will find it a valuable biographical source, since it is, among other things, a chronicle of Barth’s transition from country parson to theologian. It is a collection of 8 sermons from 1916-23, in the midst of which years he published his seminal commentary on Romans (1918).
A century later we stand in the smoldering ruins of liberal theology and look back at Barth as a prophetic figure. His mission was not unlike that of the prophet. The prophet is God’s emergency man for a crisis hour. His message is just what the prophet’s compatriots need to hear, and just what they do not want to hear. Liberal theologians of Barth’s day were not blessed to hear that, “Our disparagement of ‘doctrine’ is the fox’s disparagement of the grapes. Had we something more essential and authoritative to say, had we a theology convincing to, and accepted by, definite and increasing groups of people, had we a gospel which we had to preach, we should think differently.” Fundamentalists, meanwhile, found their prized doctrine of “biblical inerrancy” passed over as merely a stage along the way to a truly evangelical theology.
Barth's Crisis Theology is perfectly suited to the 21st century. He tells how he approached the Bible from a standpoint of skepticism but then, like Paul on the road to Damascus, found himself captivated and irresistibly thrust into a new course—the way of faith.
“We all know the curiosity that comes over us when from a window we see the people in the street suddenly stop and look up — shade their eyes with their hands and look straight up into the sky toward something which is hidden from us by the roof. Our curiosity is superfluous, for what they see is doubtless an aeroplane. But as to the sudden stopping, looking up, and tense attention characteristic of the people of the Bible, our wonder will not be so lightly dismissed. To me personally it came first with Paul: this man evidently sees and hears something which is above everything, which is absolutely beyond the range of my observation and the measure of my thought.
“And if ever I come to fear lest mine is a case of self-hallucination, one glance at the secular events of those times, one glance at the widening circle of ripples in the pool of history, tells me of a certainty that a stone of unusual weight must have been dropped into deep water there somewhere — tells me that, among all the hundreds of peripatetic preachers and miracle-workers from the Near East who in that day must have gone along the same Appian Way into imperial Rome, it was this one Paul, seeing and hearing what he did, who was the cause, if not of all, yet of the most important developments in that city’s future. And this is only one of the Biblical company, ‘Paul’ by name.
“Whether it be the prophets in the prolific middle line of Biblical descent, or the priests nearer to the margin where the Bible ceases to be Bible, whether they speak in psalms, proverbs, or in the comfortable flow of historical narrative, their theme in all its variations is equally astonishing. What matters it whether figures like Abraham and Moses are products of later myth-making — believe it who can! There were once, a few centuries earlier or later, men who lived by faith like Abraham, who were strangers in the promised land like Isaac and Jacob, who declared plainly that they were seeking a country, who like Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible. There were once men who dared.”
A century later we stand in the smoldering ruins of liberal theology and look back at Barth as a prophetic figure. His mission was not unlike that of the prophet. The prophet is God’s emergency man for a crisis hour. His message is just what the prophet’s compatriots need to hear, and just what they do not want to hear. Liberal theologians of Barth’s day were not blessed to hear that, “Our disparagement of ‘doctrine’ is the fox’s disparagement of the grapes. Had we something more essential and authoritative to say, had we a theology convincing to, and accepted by, definite and increasing groups of people, had we a gospel which we had to preach, we should think differently.” Fundamentalists, meanwhile, found their prized doctrine of “biblical inerrancy” passed over as merely a stage along the way to a truly evangelical theology.
Barth's Crisis Theology is perfectly suited to the 21st century. He tells how he approached the Bible from a standpoint of skepticism but then, like Paul on the road to Damascus, found himself captivated and irresistibly thrust into a new course—the way of faith.
“We all know the curiosity that comes over us when from a window we see the people in the street suddenly stop and look up — shade their eyes with their hands and look straight up into the sky toward something which is hidden from us by the roof. Our curiosity is superfluous, for what they see is doubtless an aeroplane. But as to the sudden stopping, looking up, and tense attention characteristic of the people of the Bible, our wonder will not be so lightly dismissed. To me personally it came first with Paul: this man evidently sees and hears something which is above everything, which is absolutely beyond the range of my observation and the measure of my thought.
“And if ever I come to fear lest mine is a case of self-hallucination, one glance at the secular events of those times, one glance at the widening circle of ripples in the pool of history, tells me of a certainty that a stone of unusual weight must have been dropped into deep water there somewhere — tells me that, among all the hundreds of peripatetic preachers and miracle-workers from the Near East who in that day must have gone along the same Appian Way into imperial Rome, it was this one Paul, seeing and hearing what he did, who was the cause, if not of all, yet of the most important developments in that city’s future. And this is only one of the Biblical company, ‘Paul’ by name.
“Whether it be the prophets in the prolific middle line of Biblical descent, or the priests nearer to the margin where the Bible ceases to be Bible, whether they speak in psalms, proverbs, or in the comfortable flow of historical narrative, their theme in all its variations is equally astonishing. What matters it whether figures like Abraham and Moses are products of later myth-making — believe it who can! There were once, a few centuries earlier or later, men who lived by faith like Abraham, who were strangers in the promised land like Isaac and Jacob, who declared plainly that they were seeking a country, who like Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible. There were once men who dared.”
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First published June 1, 1958
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About the author
Karl Barth
460 books263 followersProtestant theologian Karl Barth, a Swiss, advocated a return to the principles of the Reformation and the teachings of the Bible; his published works include
Church Dogmatics
from 1932.
Critics hold Karl Barth among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important since Saint Thomas Aquinas. Beginning with his experience as a pastor, he rejected his typical predominant liberal, especially German training of 19th century.
Instead, he embarked on a new path, initially called dialectical, due to its stress on the paradoxical nature of divine truth—for instance, God is both grace and judgment), but more accurately called a of the Word. Critics referred to this father of new orthodoxy, a pejorative term that he emphatically rejected. His thought emphasized the sovereignty of God, particularly through his innovative doctrine of election. His enormously influenced throughout Europe and America.
Critics hold Karl Barth among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important since Saint Thomas Aquinas. Beginning with his experience as a pastor, he rejected his typical predominant liberal, especially German training of 19th century.
Instead, he embarked on a new path, initially called dialectical, due to its stress on the paradoxical nature of divine truth—for instance, God is both grace and judgment), but more accurately called a of the Word. Critics referred to this father of new orthodoxy, a pejorative term that he emphatically rejected. His thought emphasized the sovereignty of God, particularly through his innovative doctrine of election. His enormously influenced throughout Europe and America.
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October 20, 2023
Some essays are better than others, but "The Strange New World Within the Bible" is in this volume so it gets an automatic 5 stars.
February 18, 2012
There are many varied reasons why someone might wish to read Karl Barth’s The Word of God & the Word of Man. For some it might be that because Barth is such a towering figure not just in 20th century theology but in the history of Christian theology as well, it is probably worth taking the time to read at least something he wrote. Or, those who have moved beyond curiosity and actually have a great affinity (or hatred!) to Barth’s work and might be interested in reading this collection of some of his early lectures to better understand Barth’s beginnings. Reading the opening essay “The Righteousness of God” helps the Barth scholar better understand what was happening in say, “The Humanity of God”. As such, The Word of God & the Word of Man serves as a useful Polaroid of the early Barth. Or perhaps the would-be reader was left puzzled by the veritable hand grenade that was Romans. Despite its stature, Romans is by no means an easy read and this collection might serve as a helpful supplement to such a task.
As a pseudo-/wanna-be Barth scholar I must admit that part of my motivation for reading this collection falls in the later variety: where did Barth come from? How did he get from point A to point B? What is it that distinguishes the nebulous “early Barth” from “later Barth”? Ironically, my hunch is that the man himself would laugh at questions such as these. While it is certainly a worthwhile endeavor to understand the work of another person, this should never be the end of the matter. This is even more so considering the subject matter of theology. In theology we use the words of men, to reflect critically upon the Word of God. Yet, in the haste to do so we forget that it is the Word of God that has its proper place as the beginning and end of all theological speak – something that Barth argues in this volume is really an impossibility anyway. Yet, speak we must. So moving forward, might there be another, better reason for reading a collection as this? Something that moves beyond the realm of theological gymnastics and cuts to the center of why we even think theologically?
It is often forgotten that Barth wrote and thought with the Church in mind. Barth began his career as a parish minister. Even his magnum opus Church Dogmatics was written for the Church and specifically with the minister in mind. Yet due to the sheer volume and breadth of Dogmatics, it is easier to push aside that reality and think of Barth as a scholar’s scholar with little mind for what actually happens in the world whether it be in the parish or in the streets. However, with The Word of God & the Word of Man, the reader is forcefully reminded that Barth wrote and thought as a minister of the Word of God with great and terrible call to preach the Word of God whether it is in the pulpit on a Sunday morning or in the great halls of the academy. And as such Barth confronts us here with the Godness of God, the one that is wholly other and yet confronts us in our sinfulness and justifies us freely and thereby heightening the level of confrontation.
Opening essay “The Righteousness of God” makes this very clear. Any attempt to construct our own image of God is a foolish tower of Babel and denies the overwhelming reality of the otherness of God. As Barth writes with such lucidity one cannot help but be lead to a deeper place of, gasp, worship of the true God who confronts us as we are. In the exceptional “The Strange New World of the Bible” the reader is reminded of the nature of the Bible. The Bible is not a history as such. It is not the story of humanity. It is not the history of religion. The Bible is the history of God and must be read as such. It is not concerned with our history but the history of God. The Bible is the bony finger of John – “behold the lamb of God!” Essays “The Need and Promise of Christian Preaching” and “the Word of God and the Task of the Ministry” are just as they sound: a resounding call to the vocation of the Church and a reminder of the impossibility of the task, specifically for the minister. As ministers called to speak truthfully and bear witness to God we stand under the judgment of God. Yet as ministers we bear witness to the mercy of the God who justifies us and frees us for such an impossible task: “As ministers we ought to speak of God. We are human, however, and so cannot speak of God. We ought therefore to recognize both our obligation and our inability and by that very recognition give God the glory” (186).
My hope is that I am suggesting that Barth in general and this work in particular are for more than the academic seeking to tag and classify God. Barth’s program is for the glory of God and the benefit of the Church. What minister, what Christian need to be less confronted with righteousness of God? What minister, what Christian does not need to be reminded of the strange new world of the Bible? What minister has not felt the crushing terror that comes with awesome task of the proclamation of the Word of God? And if one has not felt that terror, they should. And that is precisely what Barth is doing here. When one reads Barth one is confronted and reminded of the true starting point of all Christian thinking: God is God and I am not.
Quotes:
“One can not speak of God simply by speaking of man in a loud voice”
As a pseudo-/wanna-be Barth scholar I must admit that part of my motivation for reading this collection falls in the later variety: where did Barth come from? How did he get from point A to point B? What is it that distinguishes the nebulous “early Barth” from “later Barth”? Ironically, my hunch is that the man himself would laugh at questions such as these. While it is certainly a worthwhile endeavor to understand the work of another person, this should never be the end of the matter. This is even more so considering the subject matter of theology. In theology we use the words of men, to reflect critically upon the Word of God. Yet, in the haste to do so we forget that it is the Word of God that has its proper place as the beginning and end of all theological speak – something that Barth argues in this volume is really an impossibility anyway. Yet, speak we must. So moving forward, might there be another, better reason for reading a collection as this? Something that moves beyond the realm of theological gymnastics and cuts to the center of why we even think theologically?
It is often forgotten that Barth wrote and thought with the Church in mind. Barth began his career as a parish minister. Even his magnum opus Church Dogmatics was written for the Church and specifically with the minister in mind. Yet due to the sheer volume and breadth of Dogmatics, it is easier to push aside that reality and think of Barth as a scholar’s scholar with little mind for what actually happens in the world whether it be in the parish or in the streets. However, with The Word of God & the Word of Man, the reader is forcefully reminded that Barth wrote and thought as a minister of the Word of God with great and terrible call to preach the Word of God whether it is in the pulpit on a Sunday morning or in the great halls of the academy. And as such Barth confronts us here with the Godness of God, the one that is wholly other and yet confronts us in our sinfulness and justifies us freely and thereby heightening the level of confrontation.
Opening essay “The Righteousness of God” makes this very clear. Any attempt to construct our own image of God is a foolish tower of Babel and denies the overwhelming reality of the otherness of God. As Barth writes with such lucidity one cannot help but be lead to a deeper place of, gasp, worship of the true God who confronts us as we are. In the exceptional “The Strange New World of the Bible” the reader is reminded of the nature of the Bible. The Bible is not a history as such. It is not the story of humanity. It is not the history of religion. The Bible is the history of God and must be read as such. It is not concerned with our history but the history of God. The Bible is the bony finger of John – “behold the lamb of God!” Essays “The Need and Promise of Christian Preaching” and “the Word of God and the Task of the Ministry” are just as they sound: a resounding call to the vocation of the Church and a reminder of the impossibility of the task, specifically for the minister. As ministers called to speak truthfully and bear witness to God we stand under the judgment of God. Yet as ministers we bear witness to the mercy of the God who justifies us and frees us for such an impossible task: “As ministers we ought to speak of God. We are human, however, and so cannot speak of God. We ought therefore to recognize both our obligation and our inability and by that very recognition give God the glory” (186).
My hope is that I am suggesting that Barth in general and this work in particular are for more than the academic seeking to tag and classify God. Barth’s program is for the glory of God and the benefit of the Church. What minister, what Christian need to be less confronted with righteousness of God? What minister, what Christian does not need to be reminded of the strange new world of the Bible? What minister has not felt the crushing terror that comes with awesome task of the proclamation of the Word of God? And if one has not felt that terror, they should. And that is precisely what Barth is doing here. When one reads Barth one is confronted and reminded of the true starting point of all Christian thinking: God is God and I am not.
Quotes:
“One can not speak of God simply by speaking of man in a loud voice”
March 28, 2021
I am always nervous when delving into theological writings. Philosophical texts, though oftentimes guilty of their own presuppositions, always seem more welcoming. Accepting that you may come in as a skeptic and they look forward to the challenge to see if they can persuade. Religious writings seem to be more for people who are already part of the club. If you are still skeptical, you’ve been issued the entry ticket by mistake. Please grab your coat and step to the nearest exit.
Impressively, Barth breaks that stereotype. It’s like he grabbed me on the way out, took my jacket, had me sit in a slightly-too-small fold-out chair, and gave it a go. And I appreciated it.
These essays are Barth’s reflections on several topics. The ones that stood out included how to make the ministry more relevant in the 20th Century in those dark days after World War I and confronting the problem of Christian ethics. Barth is acutely aware of the skeptics of his time. He recognized the rise of existentialism and he sought to speak the same language of the existentialists to bring them to his understanding of faith.
“The Bible is the literary monument of an ancient racial religion and a Hellenistic cultus religion of the Near East. A human document like any other, it can lay no a priori dogmatic claim to special attention and consideration.” (Pg. 60). Early on he begins the argument for finding value in the Bible by co-opting one of the major objections. He then proceeds to demonstrate the significance of the choice of story and the power of myth. All leading to an argument that it is precisely because of the Bible’s non-historicity, its impact is so profound.
Barth recognizes that our quest for God goes beyond theology and church- both of which “from the beginning of the world have done more in this particular to narcotize than to stimulate. (Pg. 54). He calls out his fellow church leaders for not addressing the intellectual needs of those that come to them. For too long, the “educated and uneducated alike, are simply disappointed in us, unspeakably disappointed.” (Pg. 111).
Faith, of course, is the end result of Barth’s analysis. But he gets there in a way that is beyond gesticulating wildly and pounding on a book, or a personal revelationary moment, or simply speaking emphatically. He gets there the same way the skeptic gets to skepticism:
Barth sees faith as the only viable alternative in a world where death is a certainty and ethic is unmoored from any dogma. In some ways, it is simply Pascal’s wager. For Barth, “as to whether there is a reality waiting upon our final words or not- as to whether, holding to these words, we may live adventurously or must live despairingly.” (Pg. 178).
Had Barth really taken my arm and had spoken these words to me, I believe I would have deep appreciation for the man. For his sincerity and his willingness to speak in terms of Nietzsche and Hegel regarding his most intimate beliefs. I believe I would have been a better person for meeting him. I would have folded up the chair, placed it back against the wall, and thanked him for sharing his thoughts. However, like now, I would respectfully leave and see if I could go on living upon nothing but questions for the time being.
Impressively, Barth breaks that stereotype. It’s like he grabbed me on the way out, took my jacket, had me sit in a slightly-too-small fold-out chair, and gave it a go. And I appreciated it.
These essays are Barth’s reflections on several topics. The ones that stood out included how to make the ministry more relevant in the 20th Century in those dark days after World War I and confronting the problem of Christian ethics. Barth is acutely aware of the skeptics of his time. He recognized the rise of existentialism and he sought to speak the same language of the existentialists to bring them to his understanding of faith.
“The Bible is the literary monument of an ancient racial religion and a Hellenistic cultus religion of the Near East. A human document like any other, it can lay no a priori dogmatic claim to special attention and consideration.” (Pg. 60). Early on he begins the argument for finding value in the Bible by co-opting one of the major objections. He then proceeds to demonstrate the significance of the choice of story and the power of myth. All leading to an argument that it is precisely because of the Bible’s non-historicity, its impact is so profound.
Barth recognizes that our quest for God goes beyond theology and church- both of which “from the beginning of the world have done more in this particular to narcotize than to stimulate. (Pg. 54). He calls out his fellow church leaders for not addressing the intellectual needs of those that come to them. For too long, the “educated and uneducated alike, are simply disappointed in us, unspeakably disappointed.” (Pg. 111).
Faith, of course, is the end result of Barth’s analysis. But he gets there in a way that is beyond gesticulating wildly and pounding on a book, or a personal revelationary moment, or simply speaking emphatically. He gets there the same way the skeptic gets to skepticism:
But we turn back now to the fundamental consideration which alone can be decisive. I say that the problem of ethics is a responsibility that cannot be borne: a deadly aggression against man. Either it puts to man a question to which for him there are only such answers as themselves become questions; or it gives him an answer for which he cannot ask. But he cannot live upon nothing but questions, forever new questions. And he cannot live upon an answer which is so final for him it is no answer at all. (Pg. 152).
Barth sees faith as the only viable alternative in a world where death is a certainty and ethic is unmoored from any dogma. In some ways, it is simply Pascal’s wager. For Barth, “as to whether there is a reality waiting upon our final words or not- as to whether, holding to these words, we may live adventurously or must live despairingly.” (Pg. 178).
Had Barth really taken my arm and had spoken these words to me, I believe I would have deep appreciation for the man. For his sincerity and his willingness to speak in terms of Nietzsche and Hegel regarding his most intimate beliefs. I believe I would have been a better person for meeting him. I would have folded up the chair, placed it back against the wall, and thanked him for sharing his thoughts. However, like now, I would respectfully leave and see if I could go on living upon nothing but questions for the time being.
June 27, 2024
THE WORK MARKING BARTH’S “TRANSITION” FROM THE ROMANS COMMENTARY TO THE DOGMATICS
Karl Barth (1886-1968) was a Swiss Reformed theologian, who was (arguably) the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century. His many books include Church Dogmatics, The Epistle to the Romans, Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century, The Word of God and the Word of Man, Evangelical Theology: An Introduction,The Humanity Of God; Final Testimonies, and many more.
He wrote in the Author’s Introduction to this 1928 book, “As the reader takes his way between the first and last of these addresses he will find the landscape changing. This will be true not only of the style (As a Swiss country pastor I shall be pardoned for employing somewhat different speech from that which I use as a professor of the Reformed Church in Göttingen), not only of the ideas… but also of the material. A good deal once stood in the foreground of my mind which has since had to recede into the background, and vice versa. And there are not lacking places where in the course of the years I have had to accept additions and exclusions in my thought. I do not, however, feel occasion today to deny my earlier work, which, for all its one-sidedness, is yet my own. Understanding readers will keep these circumstances in mind and read the whole work as---a whole.”
He suggests, “We ought to apply ourselves with all our strength to expect more from God… As children to take joy in the great God and his righteousness, and to trust all to him!... Have we barely yet begun to feel the true creative joy of God’s presence? In the Bible this humility and this joy are called---faith. Faith means seeking not noise but quiet, and letting God speak within---the righteous God, there is no other. And then God works in us.” (Pg. 25)
He states, “The Bible gives to every man and to every era such answers to their questions as they deserve. We shall always find in it as much as we seek and no more: high and divine content if it is high and divine content that we seek---nothing whatever, if it is nothing whatever that we seek. The hungry are satisfied by it, and to the satisfied it is surfeiting before they have opened it. The question, What is within the Bible? has a mortifying way of converting itself into the opposing question, Well, what are you looking for, and who are you, pray, who make bold to look?” (Pg. 32)
He observes, “It is not the right human thoughts about God which form the content of the Bible, but the right divine thoughts about men. The Bible tells us not how we should talk with God but what he says to us; not how we find the way to him, but how he has sought and found the way to us; not the right relation in which we must place ourselves to him, but the covenant which he has made with all who are Abraham’s spiritual children and which he has sealed once and for all in Jesus Christ. It is this which is within the Bible. The word of God is within the Bible.” (Pg. 43)
He points out, “At the central point of typically religious interest, at the point of the personal relation of man to God… the Bible is astonishingly staid, sober, and colorless. It is evident that the relation to God with which the Bible is concerned does not have its source in the purpose depths of the subconscious, and cannot be quite identical with what the deep-sea psychical research of our day describes, in the narrower or broader sense, as LIBIDO fulfillment.” (Pg. 69-70)
He says, “The only real way to NAME the theme of the Bible, which is the Easter message, is to have it, to show it, to live it. The Easter message becomes truth, movement, reality, as it is expressed---or it is not the Easter message which is expressed. Let us be satisfied that all Biblical questions, insights, and vistas focus upon this common theme. But let us not for a moment conceal from ourselves the fact that obedience to this vision---our actual acceptance of what the Bible proposes---is a step into space, an undertaking of unknown consequences, a venture into eternity. Better first to stop and count the cost, than to leap too short!” (Pg. 86)
He recalls, “Once in the ministry, I found myself… being forced back at every point more and more upon the minister’s problem, the SERMON. I sought to find my way between the problem of human life on the one hand and the content of the Bible on the other. As a minister I wanted to speak to the people in the infinite contradiction of their life, but to speak the no less infinite message of the BIBLE, which was as much a riddle as life… But it simply came about that the familiar situation of the minister on … Sunday in his pulpit crystallized in my case into a marginal note to all theology, which finally assumed the voluminous form of a complete commentary upon the Epistle to the Romans… It is not as if I had found any way out of this critical situation. Exactly not that. But this critical situation itself became to me an explanation of the character of all theology. What else can theology be but the truest possible expression of this quest and questioning on the part of the minister… a cry for rescue arising from great need and great hope?” (Pg. 100-101)
He explains, “Our difficulty lies in the content of our task. How far this is FELT by this man or that is a question we should not need to raise; for here we are discussing our common SITUATION. This situation I will characterize in the three following sentences: As ministers we ought to speak of God. We are human, however, and so we cannot speak of God. We ought therefore to recognize both our obligation and our inability and by that very recognition give God the glory. This is our perplexity. The rest of our tasks fades into insignificance in comparison.” (Pg. 186)
He rejects Friedrich Schleiermacher: “With all due respect to the genius shown in his work, I can NOT consider Schleiermacher a good teacher in the realm of theology because… he is disastrously dim-sighted in regard to the fact that man as man is not only in NEED but beyond all hope of saving himself; that the whole of so-called religion, and not least the Christian religion, SHARES in this need; and that one can NOT speak of God simply by speaking of man in a loud voice… The very names Kierkegaard, Luther, Calvin, Paul, and Jeremiah suggest what Schleiermacher never possessed, a clear and direct apprehension of the truth that man is made to serve GOD and not God to serve man.” (Pg. 195-196)
He notes, “we must be agreed that we do NOT mean ‘the Christians,’ not the multitude of the baptized, nor the chosen few who are concerned with Religion and Social Relations, nor even the cream of the noblest and most devoted Christians we might think of: the Christian is THE CHRIST. The Christian is that within us which is not ourself but Christ in us… There is in us, over us, behind us, and beyond us a consciousness of the meaning of life, a memory of our own origin, a turning to the Lord of the universe, a critical No and a creative Yes in regard to all the content of our thought, a facing away from the old and toward the new age---whose sign and fulfillment is the cross.” (Pg. 273-274)
In the final chapter, he summarizes, “Simple cooperation within the framework of existing society is followed by radical and absolute opposition to that society. But as we had to guard ourselves against thinking we could set up our overturned idols again by confining ourselves objectively to the world as it is, we must now fortify ourselves against expecting that our criticizing, protesting, reforming, organizing, democratizing, socializing, and revolutionizing---however fundamental and thoroughgoing these may be---will satisfy the idea of the kingdom of God. That is really beyond us.” (Pg. 320)
This book will be “must reading” for those studying Barth, or 20th century theology.
Karl Barth (1886-1968) was a Swiss Reformed theologian, who was (arguably) the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century. His many books include Church Dogmatics, The Epistle to the Romans, Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century, The Word of God and the Word of Man, Evangelical Theology: An Introduction,The Humanity Of God; Final Testimonies, and many more.
He wrote in the Author’s Introduction to this 1928 book, “As the reader takes his way between the first and last of these addresses he will find the landscape changing. This will be true not only of the style (As a Swiss country pastor I shall be pardoned for employing somewhat different speech from that which I use as a professor of the Reformed Church in Göttingen), not only of the ideas… but also of the material. A good deal once stood in the foreground of my mind which has since had to recede into the background, and vice versa. And there are not lacking places where in the course of the years I have had to accept additions and exclusions in my thought. I do not, however, feel occasion today to deny my earlier work, which, for all its one-sidedness, is yet my own. Understanding readers will keep these circumstances in mind and read the whole work as---a whole.”
He suggests, “We ought to apply ourselves with all our strength to expect more from God… As children to take joy in the great God and his righteousness, and to trust all to him!... Have we barely yet begun to feel the true creative joy of God’s presence? In the Bible this humility and this joy are called---faith. Faith means seeking not noise but quiet, and letting God speak within---the righteous God, there is no other. And then God works in us.” (Pg. 25)
He states, “The Bible gives to every man and to every era such answers to their questions as they deserve. We shall always find in it as much as we seek and no more: high and divine content if it is high and divine content that we seek---nothing whatever, if it is nothing whatever that we seek. The hungry are satisfied by it, and to the satisfied it is surfeiting before they have opened it. The question, What is within the Bible? has a mortifying way of converting itself into the opposing question, Well, what are you looking for, and who are you, pray, who make bold to look?” (Pg. 32)
He observes, “It is not the right human thoughts about God which form the content of the Bible, but the right divine thoughts about men. The Bible tells us not how we should talk with God but what he says to us; not how we find the way to him, but how he has sought and found the way to us; not the right relation in which we must place ourselves to him, but the covenant which he has made with all who are Abraham’s spiritual children and which he has sealed once and for all in Jesus Christ. It is this which is within the Bible. The word of God is within the Bible.” (Pg. 43)
He points out, “At the central point of typically religious interest, at the point of the personal relation of man to God… the Bible is astonishingly staid, sober, and colorless. It is evident that the relation to God with which the Bible is concerned does not have its source in the purpose depths of the subconscious, and cannot be quite identical with what the deep-sea psychical research of our day describes, in the narrower or broader sense, as LIBIDO fulfillment.” (Pg. 69-70)
He says, “The only real way to NAME the theme of the Bible, which is the Easter message, is to have it, to show it, to live it. The Easter message becomes truth, movement, reality, as it is expressed---or it is not the Easter message which is expressed. Let us be satisfied that all Biblical questions, insights, and vistas focus upon this common theme. But let us not for a moment conceal from ourselves the fact that obedience to this vision---our actual acceptance of what the Bible proposes---is a step into space, an undertaking of unknown consequences, a venture into eternity. Better first to stop and count the cost, than to leap too short!” (Pg. 86)
He recalls, “Once in the ministry, I found myself… being forced back at every point more and more upon the minister’s problem, the SERMON. I sought to find my way between the problem of human life on the one hand and the content of the Bible on the other. As a minister I wanted to speak to the people in the infinite contradiction of their life, but to speak the no less infinite message of the BIBLE, which was as much a riddle as life… But it simply came about that the familiar situation of the minister on … Sunday in his pulpit crystallized in my case into a marginal note to all theology, which finally assumed the voluminous form of a complete commentary upon the Epistle to the Romans… It is not as if I had found any way out of this critical situation. Exactly not that. But this critical situation itself became to me an explanation of the character of all theology. What else can theology be but the truest possible expression of this quest and questioning on the part of the minister… a cry for rescue arising from great need and great hope?” (Pg. 100-101)
He explains, “Our difficulty lies in the content of our task. How far this is FELT by this man or that is a question we should not need to raise; for here we are discussing our common SITUATION. This situation I will characterize in the three following sentences: As ministers we ought to speak of God. We are human, however, and so we cannot speak of God. We ought therefore to recognize both our obligation and our inability and by that very recognition give God the glory. This is our perplexity. The rest of our tasks fades into insignificance in comparison.” (Pg. 186)
He rejects Friedrich Schleiermacher: “With all due respect to the genius shown in his work, I can NOT consider Schleiermacher a good teacher in the realm of theology because… he is disastrously dim-sighted in regard to the fact that man as man is not only in NEED but beyond all hope of saving himself; that the whole of so-called religion, and not least the Christian religion, SHARES in this need; and that one can NOT speak of God simply by speaking of man in a loud voice… The very names Kierkegaard, Luther, Calvin, Paul, and Jeremiah suggest what Schleiermacher never possessed, a clear and direct apprehension of the truth that man is made to serve GOD and not God to serve man.” (Pg. 195-196)
He notes, “we must be agreed that we do NOT mean ‘the Christians,’ not the multitude of the baptized, nor the chosen few who are concerned with Religion and Social Relations, nor even the cream of the noblest and most devoted Christians we might think of: the Christian is THE CHRIST. The Christian is that within us which is not ourself but Christ in us… There is in us, over us, behind us, and beyond us a consciousness of the meaning of life, a memory of our own origin, a turning to the Lord of the universe, a critical No and a creative Yes in regard to all the content of our thought, a facing away from the old and toward the new age---whose sign and fulfillment is the cross.” (Pg. 273-274)
In the final chapter, he summarizes, “Simple cooperation within the framework of existing society is followed by radical and absolute opposition to that society. But as we had to guard ourselves against thinking we could set up our overturned idols again by confining ourselves objectively to the world as it is, we must now fortify ourselves against expecting that our criticizing, protesting, reforming, organizing, democratizing, socializing, and revolutionizing---however fundamental and thoroughgoing these may be---will satisfy the idea of the kingdom of God. That is really beyond us.” (Pg. 320)
This book will be “must reading” for those studying Barth, or 20th century theology.
April 5, 2009
Karl Barth is a giant of 20th century theology, and this little book, for better or worse, was one of the first translations of his thoughts into English. I have never been much of a Barthian, but I learned quite a bit from reacting to him. If you have any interest in 20th century theology, you should read some of his work.
December 4, 2025
Barth writes like he thinks, in dialectical terms. So, "yes" and "no," up and down, in and out, etc., finally equate. This makes following his discourse (translated from the German, which complicates things, too) hard to follow.
And in the end it is so dense as to be invisible. After reading a paragraph, one wonders "what did I just read? what did he say?" because it vanishes. The best example for this is an airplane propeller: just because it becomes nearly invisible, the faster it rotates, does not mean that it is not there - it will make of the person who walks into it a bloody mess; so, invisible or not, it has forceful substance. Like the propeller, Barth's writing, loses apprehension (visibility) at the point where it is most substantial (can rip you apart precisely due to its evanescence). If you pick up anything written by Barth, be prepared to re-read what you just went over.
I have to say that my favorite part of the book is the chapter on reading the Bible - Barth compares it to a house where one goes to meet God. Reading this chapter carefully enough, it can be seen that the Bible is a place of personal revelation. The technical term for this illumination. The Bible has been oversold as to its inspiration and inerrancy; through the power of the Holy Spirit, though, the reader can experience illumination and infallibility, instead. The Holy Spirit can overcome anything wrong with the Bible. This is an aspect that the Fundamentalists seem to have missed.
And in the end it is so dense as to be invisible. After reading a paragraph, one wonders "what did I just read? what did he say?" because it vanishes. The best example for this is an airplane propeller: just because it becomes nearly invisible, the faster it rotates, does not mean that it is not there - it will make of the person who walks into it a bloody mess; so, invisible or not, it has forceful substance. Like the propeller, Barth's writing, loses apprehension (visibility) at the point where it is most substantial (can rip you apart precisely due to its evanescence). If you pick up anything written by Barth, be prepared to re-read what you just went over.
I have to say that my favorite part of the book is the chapter on reading the Bible - Barth compares it to a house where one goes to meet God. Reading this chapter carefully enough, it can be seen that the Bible is a place of personal revelation. The technical term for this illumination. The Bible has been oversold as to its inspiration and inerrancy; through the power of the Holy Spirit, though, the reader can experience illumination and infallibility, instead. The Holy Spirit can overcome anything wrong with the Bible. This is an aspect that the Fundamentalists seem to have missed.
September 15, 2025
WOW. Karl Barth man. What a freaking guy. What a freaking book. What a wonder it is that the faith-life God invites us to receive is something tangible for our lives this very day.
Read seven of the eight chapters, or talks given. The one on reformed churches since there really isn’t a relevance to me there.
From the seven I read, I was blown away. My favorites were the strange new world of the Bible, the righteousness of God, and the Christian’s place in society.
Rating: 9.5/10, five stars!
Read seven of the eight chapters, or talks given. The one on reformed churches since there really isn’t a relevance to me there.
From the seven I read, I was blown away. My favorites were the strange new world of the Bible, the righteousness of God, and the Christian’s place in society.
Rating: 9.5/10, five stars!
August 16, 2017
This author is considered by some to have been the best theologian of the twentieth century. Oddly then, this was my first experience with his work. I highly recommend this book, which I found easy to read and understand.
Want to read
April 28, 2022Karl Barth is a great theologian who readings making a great impact on his readers. His book The Words of God & The words of Man, is truly a magnificent storyline.
January 20, 2008
Karl Barth, The Word of God and the Word of Man (Peter Smith, 1928)
It is true that the translation of a work of literature is often as much of an art as the work of literature itself. Having now read three long translations of Karl Barth from three different translators, I can speculate that the above statement is, perhaps, more true of nonfiction being translated from German to English than it is anywhere else. Douglas Horton's translation of Barth stands head and shoulders over the other two authors whose translations I've attempted, and the man deserves to be commended for a job well done before I get into the meat of the book.
The Word of God and the Word of Man is a collection of eight addresses Barth gave to Reformed conventions during the first half of the period between the two world wars. At this point, Barth was still the young country preacher he spent his life professing to be, and his youth should be taken into account when comparing the writings in this book with some of his other works. Barth is a bit more, shall we say, pointed here than he is in later works. Not that that's a bad thing, by any means.
Perhaps it is the case that Barth's exhortations to his fellow ministers are different and more positive than those he used to congregants. But as a non-Christian reading Barth, the thing that kept coming back to me is that if more churches (and Reform or not, most Protestant denominations these seem to pay at least lip service to Barth's works) actually practiced what Barth preached, I might still be a member of one. Barth's vision of the place of the preacher as bridge between the kingdom of Man and the kingdom of God spends little time, if any, on the "thou shalt not"s and most of his time on the questions with which every aspiring Christian, preacher or no, struggles (or should struggle) on a daily basis; why are we here? How can we understand the wholly Other that is God? How can we communicate what little understanding we can garner to others, and what makes us qualified to do so? Things like that. There is fire here, and it can be seen even eighty years later with the words on a page, but there is a decided lack of the smell of brimstone. Barth's fire is that of enthusiasm to share, not to command, and that makes all the difference.
Karl Barth is widely considered to be one of the greatest theological thinkers of the twentieth century; reading books like The Word of God and the Word of Man, it's quite easy to see why. ****
It is true that the translation of a work of literature is often as much of an art as the work of literature itself. Having now read three long translations of Karl Barth from three different translators, I can speculate that the above statement is, perhaps, more true of nonfiction being translated from German to English than it is anywhere else. Douglas Horton's translation of Barth stands head and shoulders over the other two authors whose translations I've attempted, and the man deserves to be commended for a job well done before I get into the meat of the book.
The Word of God and the Word of Man is a collection of eight addresses Barth gave to Reformed conventions during the first half of the period between the two world wars. At this point, Barth was still the young country preacher he spent his life professing to be, and his youth should be taken into account when comparing the writings in this book with some of his other works. Barth is a bit more, shall we say, pointed here than he is in later works. Not that that's a bad thing, by any means.
Perhaps it is the case that Barth's exhortations to his fellow ministers are different and more positive than those he used to congregants. But as a non-Christian reading Barth, the thing that kept coming back to me is that if more churches (and Reform or not, most Protestant denominations these seem to pay at least lip service to Barth's works) actually practiced what Barth preached, I might still be a member of one. Barth's vision of the place of the preacher as bridge between the kingdom of Man and the kingdom of God spends little time, if any, on the "thou shalt not"s and most of his time on the questions with which every aspiring Christian, preacher or no, struggles (or should struggle) on a daily basis; why are we here? How can we understand the wholly Other that is God? How can we communicate what little understanding we can garner to others, and what makes us qualified to do so? Things like that. There is fire here, and it can be seen even eighty years later with the words on a page, but there is a decided lack of the smell of brimstone. Barth's fire is that of enthusiasm to share, not to command, and that makes all the difference.
Karl Barth is widely considered to be one of the greatest theological thinkers of the twentieth century; reading books like The Word of God and the Word of Man, it's quite easy to see why. ****
April 20, 2014
Read this book and Zimmerman Telegram which gives one an insight into this era of 1910 to 1923 in a historical context of WWI, social democracy, the Reformed Church, and the political and economic impact on nations. After reading both books one is left with more questions of post war WWI to today. Has humanity learned anything from these historical events and if of the Christian faith have they lost what Barth constantly emphasizes in these writings does mankind self God's Word for the immediate ramblings of today? Do they forget to look at the history of God and man to forth on folly and following it? Barth seems refrained at times in what he says to ministers and lay leaders in the hardship of post WWI to ask them to understand, and discern carefully who and what they follow. That is a good message in any time. Thought provoking reading that I combined more by accident than intention.
September 13, 2014
This is a wonderful translation of some of Barth's early work. The lectures themselves reveal a Barth breaking strongly from liberalism and reaching out towards the theology he will develop later in life. By no means are these works reflective of the mature Barth, but they provide a wonderful glimpse in his journey from student of Hermann to the theologian he would become.
September 8, 2017
The essays are various talks given by Barth. There is a lot in the talks that isn't accessible without knowing a lot of background and context. I most appreciated Barth's description of his view of dialectism, a combination of dogmatism and self-criticism in motion, to understand faith in a tug of war between the truth of God and the truth of man, but always about God.
December 23, 2014
Some of his insights are profound. But sometimes he becomes so enamored with them he takes them too far. Or, in a wrong direction.
I really appreciate his desire to combat sterile religiosity, whatever form it takes.
I really appreciate his desire to combat sterile religiosity, whatever form it takes.
August 24, 2015
This was just absolutely fascinating. So many things I've been thinking and trying to articulate for myself recently were laid out in the perfect phrasing. His essays on the role of the Christian in society and the purpose of preaching were particularly good. So glad I stumbled across this book.
December 6, 2015
This is an incredible undertaking of trying to depict and help people understand exactly what the sovereignty of God is. However, I feel, like many other Reformed theology does, this might alienate people who are more about pietism and feeling rather than thought and understanding.
Want to read
May 21, 2013comment
August 3, 2013
A fresh translation with helpful annotations. A delight to read for all. A necessity for every theologian. This book was one of Bonhoeffer 's favorites and it has quickly become one of mine.
July 8, 2019
Barth
How can you go wrong with karl barth? He is excellent in every sense of the word please read his dogmatic in outline
How can you go wrong with karl barth? He is excellent in every sense of the word please read his dogmatic in outline
October 7, 2020
An exemplary translation by Amy Marga!
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