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41 " Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is Himself the way "
― Karl Barth
42 " The person who knows only his side of the argument knows little of that. "
43 " The theologian who labors without joy is not a theologian at all. Sulky faces, morose thoughts and boring ways of speaking are intolerable in this field. "
44 " It may be that when the angels go about their task praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they are together en famille they play Mozart. "
45 " Faith is not an art. Faith is not an achievement. Faith is not a good work of which some may boast while others can excuse themselves with a shrug of the shoulders for not being capable of it. It is a decisive insight of faith itself that all of us are incapable of faith in ourselves, whether we think of its preparation, beginning, continuation, or completion. In this respect believers understand unbelievers, skeptics, and atheists better than they understand themselves. Unlike unbelievers, they regard the impossibility of faith as necessary, not accidental ... "
― Karl Barth , Reader
46 " As ministers we ought to speak of God. We are human, however, and so cannot speak of God. We ought therefore to recognize both our obligation and our inability and by that very recognition give glory to God "
47 " That the zeal for God's honor is also a dangerous passion, that the Christian must bring with him the courage to swim against the tide instead of with it... accept a good deal of loneliness, will perhaps be nowhere so clear and palpable as in the church, where he would so much like things to be different. Yet he cannot and he will not refuse to take this risk and pay this price... he belongs where the reformation of the church is underway or will again be underway. "
48 " When we are at our wits' end for an answer, then the Holy Spirit can give us an answer. But how can He give us an answer when we are still well supplied with all sorts of answers of our own? "
49 " ...The cry of revolt against such a god [a god which just affirms the world as it is] is nearer the truth than is the sophistry with which men attempt to justify him.... "
50 " Everyone who has to contend with unbelief should be advised that he ought not to take his own unbelief too seriously. "
― Karl Barth , Dogmatics in Outline
51 " True theology is an actual determination and claiming of man by the acting God. "
― Karl Barth , Church Dogmatics, 14 Vols
52 " God has not the slightest need for our proofs. "
53 " For if God Himself became man, this man, what else can this mean but that He declared himself guilty of the contradiction against Himself "
54 " What is there within the Bible?""It is a dangerous question. We might do better not to come too near this burning bush. For we are sure to betray what is—behind us! The Bible gives to every man and every era such answers to your questions as they deserve. We shall always find in it as much as we seek and no more: high and divine content if it is high and divine content that we seek; transitory and "historical" content, if transitory and "historical" content that we seek. Nothing whatever, if it is nothing whatever that we seek. The hungry are satisfied by it, and to the satisfied it is surfeiting before they have opened it. The question, "What is in the Bible?" has a mortifying way of converting itself into the opposing question, "Well, what are you looking for, and who are you, pray, who make bold to look? "
55 " the Church should be the place where a word reverberates right into the world. "
56 " political correctness jeopardizes more than it should the human capacity to speak the truth, "
57 " Anyone who does not want communism-and none of usdo-should take socialism seriously. "
58 " Agape is related to Eros, as Mozart to Beethoven. How could they possibly be confused? "
― Karl Barth , Evangelical Theology: An Introduction
59 " Exactly halfway between exegesis and practical theology stands dogmatics, "
60 " To be pilgrims means that men must perpetually return to the starting-point of that naked humanity which is absolute poverty and utter insecurity. God must not be sought as though he sat enthroned upon the summit of religious attainment. He is to be found on the plain where men suffer and sin. The veritable pinnacle of religious achievement is attained when men are thrust down into the company of those who lie in the depths. The true faith is the "faith of Abraham which he had in uncircumcision"; the true children of Abraham are thy whom God is able to raise up "of these stones". Where this is overlooked, the first must become the last, for only the last can be first. "
― Karl Barth , The Epistle to the Romans