And for the first quote from my brand new, and freaking awesome Barth set, I give you a quote from CD I/1 that, contrary to many of the “invention of the antichrist”-type caricatures of Barth, exhibits his quite robust theology of creation, culture, and revelation:
“If the question [of] what God can do forces theology to be humble, the question [of] what is commanded forces it to concrete obedience. God may speak to us through Russian Communism, a flute concerto, a blossoming shrub, or a dead dog. We do well to listen to Him if He really does. . . . God make speak to us through a pagan or an atheist, and thus give us to understand that the boundary between the Church and the secular world can still take at any time a different course from that which we think we discern.” (CD I/1, 55)
It’s usually difficult to caricature someone via direct quote. One or two stupid or rhetorically injudicious quotes don’t damn a person, though.
For which I thank God every day.
Indeed.