A History of Grace: Karl Barth

Karl Barth was one of the great theological minds of the last few centuries. And he made a major impact on the world.

Karl Barth was one of the great theological minds of the last few centuries. And he made a major impact on the world.

When I was in graduate school at Boston University, he was kind of an anchor for me. Barth took me out of the crazy wacko liberalism as I read somebody who was brilliant and who believed that the Bible was really true.

(Now that doesn’t mean that I agree with everything that Karl Barth ever said and wrote, but he was an amazing theologian.)

A pope of the Catholic Church—and Barth had an impact on Roman Catholicism too—said that he was the greatest theologian since Aquinas.

Barth’s commentary on Romans, The Epistle to the Romans, written in the 1920s, was likened to “throwing an atomic bomb into the playground of liberals.” He made such a difference in my life, especially his multi-volume Church Dogmatics, some of the most brilliant writing in the history of the church.

One of my favorite quotes… Somebody interviewed Karl Barth and asked him what he had learned after a long life of study and scholarship. Barth said this, “I have learned Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

He got it.

And that’s the main thing.

A History of Grace is a brand new Key Life series that pairs selections from classic theological works with insightful commentary from your favorite Key Life writers.