Inspirational Quotes by Karl Barth (Swiss Protestant Theologian)

Karl Barth (1886–1968) was a Swiss Protestant theologian. His seminal work The Epistle to the Romans (1919) established a theocentric approach to contemporary religious thought. A rebuttal of liberal nineteenth-century Protestant beliefs, Barth’s neo-orthodox dialectical approach (theology of the word) remains influential on Protestant theology.

Born in Basel, Barth studied at Berne, Berlin, Tübingen, and Marburg. He served as pastor of congregations in Geneva 1909–11 and in Safenwil in the Aargau canton 1911–21. His commentary on St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (1919) established his theological reputation.

Barth became a professor of theology at the universities of Göttingen, Münster, and Bonn. His spirited opposition to German National Socialism and the efforts of the Deutsche Christen (German Christian) movement to reconcile themselves with Nazism led to his dismissal. He then became a professor at Basel 1935–62, where he delivered over 500 sermons and worked on Knowledge of God and the Service of God (1938) and the monumental Kirchliche Dogmatik (4 vols., 1932–67; Church Dogmatics, 1961–67.)

Barth contended that the teachings of Christ as related in the Bible were the only route to an understanding of God. His theology emphasized the need for realization of human sin—the original sin being man’s attempts to make himself, rather than God, the center of the world. Pope Pius XII called Barth “the greatest theologian since Thomas Aquinas.”

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