Karl Barth for Armchair Theologians
During SBL this past weekend, I picked up a copy of Barth for Armchair Theologians by John R. Franke. I have always been intrigued by this armchair series published by Westminster John Knox, and knowing that I currently do not have time to begin reading Barth's extensive writings, a nice, light introduction sounded like a good idea. Franke makes a great comment in his discussion of Barth's developing theology, as Barth began to move away from liberal theology in the aftermath of World War I: "...Barth increasingly believed that to speak of God was to speak of something different, strange, and startling. God does not come to us in ways that simply affirm what we already believe and practice as a matter of course, but God comes to us and speaks to us on God's own terms, invading and disrupting what we have known and take for granted by calling into being a new reality that we could not have foreseen or imagined" (p. 31).
