Anecdotes from Karl Barth

Many people do not recognize the name Karl Barth (I didn’t a year ago), but he was the most influential theologian of the 20th century, and possibly since Calvin. His work was unparalleled, for he single-handedly halted the progress of classic liberal theology. Here are a few anecdotes from his work.

Concerning Our Work as Christians

Every morning Karl Barth would wake up, read the newspaper, and stare at a painting by Grunewald called “Crucifixion”. The picture on the note is that painting. Jesus is hanging from the cross, apparently dead, while Mary and others morn. John the Baptist, holding the Scriptures and leaning away from Christ, is pointing to Jesus on the Cross. Before he would teach theology or write in his famous work Church Dogmatics, Barth would meditate on this painting, particularly on John the Baptist. He said that, as Christians (whether a theologian, pastor, teacher, mother, doctor, store keeper, etc.), our job is to be the finger (and only the finger) of John the Baptist. The only thing we should do; indeed, the only thing we can do is simply point to Jesus on the cross. This scene painted by Grunewald is the sum of all history, from Creation in the past to eternity. And we are that finger, and within that finger rests the weight of salvation.


Concerning Salvation

The Late 18th and early into the 19th century Classic Liberalism was at its peak form. Optimism in theology and life was very prevalent (this, of course, was before WWI). The idea that God is our Father and that every person, regardless of their view of Jesus, was a child of God. “All roads lead up the mountain to God” was a popular mantra recited then. Just pick a path, and it will get you to God was the modus operendi, but Barth disagreed.

Barth purported that not all roads lead up the mountain to God. In fact, there are no roads up the mountain. Not just that, but there is no mountain. We CANNOT get to God. That is why God comes down to us. It is not “us with God”, but Immanuel, “God with us”, in the form of Jesus Christ, the perfect God-man, come to save degenerate sinners such as ourselves by death on the cross to bring us eventually to God.


Soli Deo Gloria.