Karl Barth

Karl Barth (May 10, 1886 - Dec 10, 1968) pronounced "Bart", was a 20th-century Swiss theologian in the Reformed tradition. A vigorous opponent of theological liberalism and modernism, he is sometimes called "the Father of Neo-Orthodoxy".
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== Early life and education ==
Karl Barth was born in Basel, Switzerland and spent his early years growing up in Bern where his father taught at the university. Barth began his studies in Bern in 1904 where he was introduced to Kant, whose Critique of Practical Reason he called 'the first book that really moved me as a student'.Quoted in John Webster, Barth 2nd edition (Continuum, 2004), 3. Barth went on to study at Berlin, a center of Protestant liberalism, later studying at Tübingen and finally in Marburg in 1908. While at Marburg, Wilhelm Herrmann A great dogmatician and ethicist of Barth's time had a great influence on Barth. After Marburg, Barth spent ten years (1911 - 1921) as a pastor. This had a profound impact on his theology as "Barth's liberal assurances were initially undermined by his exposure to the Swiss social democratic movement... The outbreak of the Great War further disillusioned him... most of his former teachers signed a declaration of support for the Kaiser." Webster, Barth, 4. Barth described his experience:
:An entire world of theological exegesis, ethics, dogmatics, and preaching, which up to that point I had accepted as basically credible, was thereby shaken to the foundations, and with it everything which flowed at that time from the pens of the German theologians.Ibid.
Barth returned to Scripture, especially studying the Romans in 1916 which resulted in his commentary, first published in 1919.A second edition was published in 1922. His commentary resulted in a new-found prominence in Germany.
As a result, Barth was offered a position as Honorary Professor of Reformed Theology in Göttingen.During his time here, Barth wrote the Göttingen Dogmatics. Teaching at Göttingen from 1921 - 1925, he later held posts at Münster (1925–1930) and Bonn (1930–1935). Other key points involve Barth's first (and later abandoned) volume of the Christian Dogmatics (1927), his study of Anselm (1930), the first volume of the Church Dogmatics (1932), his debate with Emil Brunner over natural theology,Published in 1946 as Nein (No!). the Barmen Declaration of 1934, and his travel to Rome in 1966 to talk with those involved in the Second Vatican Council among many other things. Barth retired at the end of the winter semester of 1961-62, and his health began to decline in 1964. Barth passed away on December 10, 1968.
==Theological perspectives==
It has been said that "a 'Barthian theology' is just as impossible as an 'Einsteinian science', but just as there is a pre-Einsteinian science and a post-Einsteinian science, so there is a pre-Barthian and post-Barthian theology, for the contribution of Karl Barth to theology is, like that of Albert Einstein to nature science, so deep-going and fundamental that it marks one of the great eras of advance in the whole history of the subject" T. F. Torrance, Karl Barth: An Introduction to His Early Theology, 1910-1931, 9.
== Church Dogmatics ==
Barth's Church Dogmatics (CD) were written in four volumes; however, each volume contains "part volumes" which, when considered together, total fourteen volumes. The CD are sometimes cited with thirteen or fourteen volumes depending on whether the Index (vol. V) is included. The revised version published by T&T Clark (2008) is broken up into 31 volumes.Church Dogmatics: The New Edition
Volume	Title
* I/1
* I/2
* II/1
* II/2
* III/1
* III/2
* III/3
* III/4
* IV/1
* IV/2
* IV/3/1
* IV/3/2
* IV/4
* V	
* The Word of God as the Criterion of Dogmatics; The Revelation of God
* The Revelation of God; Holy Scripture: The Proclamation of the Church
* The Knowledge of God; The Reality of God
* The Election of God; The Command of God
* The Work of Creation
* The Creature
* The Creator and His Creature
* The Command of God the Creator
* The Subject-Matter and Problems of the Doctrine of Reconciliation
* Jesus Christ, the Servant as Lord
* Jesus Christ, the True Witness
* Jesus Christ, the True Witness
* The Foundation of Christian Life
* Index, With Aids for the Preacher
Barth's death in 1968 left IV/4 a mere fragment. Thus, the Church Dogmatics was never completed.
== Selected works ==
* The Epistle to the Romans. Oxford, 1968. ISBN 0195002946
* The Göttingen Dogmatics: Instruction in the Christian Religion. Eerdmans, 1991; Eerdmans, 2008. ISBN 0802824218
* Church Dogmatics, 4 volumes, 14 part-volumes. T&T Clark, 1936-1952. ISBN 0567058093 (English translation); new edition, T&T Clark, 2008.
* Anselm: Fides Quaerens Intellectum: Anselm's Proof of the Existence of God in the Context of his Theological Scheme. SCM Press, 1960; reprint Pickwick, 1985. ISBN 0915138751
* Dogmatics in Outline, (1947 lectures) Harper Perennial, 1959. ISBN 006130056X
* The Humanity of God. WJK, 1960. ISBN 0804206120
* Evangelical Theology: An Introduction. Eerdmans, 1992. ISBN 0802818196
* Word of God and the Word of Man. Peter Smith, 1958. ISBN 0844615994
* The Call to Discipleship. Fortress, 2003. ISBN 0800636325
* Prayer. WJK, 2002. ISBN 0664224210
* The Theology of John Calvin. Eerdmans, 1995. ISBN 0802806961
* Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century: Its Background and Hisory, New Edition. Eerdmans, 2002. ISBN 0802860788
* God Here and Now. Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0415304474
* Homiletics. WJK, 1991. ISBN 0664251587
* Ethics. Seabury, 1981. ISBN 0816404844
* Christ and Adam: Man and Humanity in Romans 5. Wipf & Stock, 2004. ISBN 1592446396
* See also: Barth bibliography
== Resources ==
* The Digital Karl Barth Library 
* Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth: His Life from Letters and Autobiographical Texts. Eerdmans, 1994; Wipf & Stock, 2005. ISBN 1597521698
* A late friendship: The letters of Karl Barth and Carl Zuckmayer. Eerdmans, 1982. ISBN 0802835740
* Karl Barth: Letters, 1961-1968. T&T Clark, 1987. ISBN 0567093212
* Bernd Jaspert, ed. Karl Barth-Rudolf Bultmann letters, 1922-1966. Eerdmans, 1981. ISBN 0802835600
* See also: Barth bibliography; for resources on Barth's theology, click here.
== Notes ==
== See also ==
* Theology of Karl Barth
* Center for Barth Studies
* Neo-Orthodoxy
==External links==
* Barth For Beginners, by George S. Hendry, Theology Today 19:2 (July 1962): 267-271. 
* Karl Barth, from The Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Modern Western Theology
* Why Karl Barth is Hard to Read, by Fred Sanders
* Karl Barth Page, with extensive links to on-line primary and secondary resources, by Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, Tyndale Seminary
* Articles on Karl Barth, by John C. McDowell
* Various articles on Barth
* Theology Today 43:3 (1986) - Karl Barth
* Reappraising Barth's Theology, by Daniel L. Migliore, Theology Today 43:3 (Oct 1986): 309-315.
=== Barth studies ===
* The Center for Barth Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary
* Karl Barth Society Newsletter
* Barth Literature Search Project
=== Online writings ===
* How My Mind Has Changed: Part Two
* Nazism and Communism
* On the Sinking of the Titanic, a sermon (1912)
Barth