A review by theologiaviatorum
Church Dogmatics by Karl Barth

challenging informative slow-paced

4.0

This book is glorious. This selection of excerpts from Church Dogmatics by Karl Barth was compiled by Helmut Gollwitzer, a student of Barth and Barth's own choice to replace him at the University of Basel (though the university itself turned him down). This book can only serve as an introduction or an appetizer to the entree which is the 13 volume Church Dogmatics. Regardless, it is a fine introduction indeed. In these pages you meet a mind fixed upon Christ. Barth disciplined himself to think through every issue, rigorously, with Christ as the beginning and end. There is no knowledge of God apart from Christ. For Barth it is not enough to say "The Bible says ..." What the Bible says it says only because of what God has done in Christ. Until we can articulate that connection, that is, until we can say why what Christ has done produces "what the Bible says" then we have not understood "what the Bible says" at all. This goes down as one of the best books I've read all year.