Quotes by Karl Barth

Karl Barth (1886–1968) — Theologe · Reformiert · Schweiz

Der Schweizer evangelisch-reformierte Theologe Karl Barth (1886–1968) wirkte als Gemeindepfarrer im Aargau sowie als Universitätsprofessor in Deutschland und Basel. Als Mitbegründer der Dialektischen Theologie und Vordenker der Bekennenden Kirche wandte er sich gegen die liberale Kulturtheologie und verfasste maßgeblich die Barmer Theologische Erklärung von 1934. Für Bibelleser bleibt seine radikale Konzentration auf Gottes Selbstoffenbarung in Jesus Christus prägend, während seine theologische Haltung zur Erwählungslehre und seine jahrzehntelange Dreiecksbeziehung im eigenen Haushalt bis heute diskutiert werden.

Era: The 20th Century

Recurring topics: God, Jesus & the Holy Spirit, Grace & Redemption, Faith & Trust, Joy & Gratitude, Justice & Commitment, The Bible & the Word of God, Wisdom & Understanding, Eternity & Hope Beyond Death

Quotes by Karl Barth

Whoever has heard the Easter message can no longer walk around with a tragic face, leading the humorless existence of a person without hope.
Karl Barth

Folding hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.
Karl Barth

He may let go of God, but God does not let go of him.
Karl Barth

Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.
Karl Barth

When the angels praise God in Heaven I am sure they play Bach. However, en famille they play Mozart, and then God the Lord is especially delighted to listen to them.
Karl Barth

God does not gift without calling — and he does not call without gifting.
Karl Barth

The Christian community should rather stand up three times too often for the weak than once too little, rather raise its voice unpleasantly loud where justice and freedom are threatened, than pleasantly quiet!
Karl Barth

What does the Christian do? He does what he, as one loved by God, is permitted to do, has the freedom to do: he loves.
Karl Barth

God's command commands us to be free.
Karl Barth

Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.
Karl Barth

No one can be saved in virtue of what he can do. Everyone can be saved in virtue of what God can do.
Karl Barth

The goal of human life is not death but resurrection.
Karl Barth

When I come before these men I do not have to explain that we are all sinners. They have committed every sin there is. All I have to tell them is that I, too, am a sinner.
Karl Barth

Eternity is here in the stable at Bethlehem and on the cross of Calvary in time.
Karl Barth

How one should pray is written in the Bible; and what one should pray for is written in the newspaper.
Karl Barth

Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.
Karl Barth

The church should fear God and not fear the world.
Karl Barth

To rejoice means: to watch for opportunities to be grateful.
Karl Barth

Divine revelation is the opening of a door that can only be opened from within, not from without.
Karl Barth

We will always find in the Bible just as much as we seek: great and divine things, if we seek great and divine things; important and historical things, if we seek important and historical things; nothing at all, if we seek nothing at all!
Karl Barth

We do not answer Christ's call with 'true' or 'false', but with 'yes' or 'no'.
Karl Barth

Man cries out for God, not for a truth, but for the truth, not for something good, but for the good, not for answers, but for the answer, which is immediately one with the question... He does not cry out for solutions, but for redemption.
Karl Barth

How wonderful, that I am not too small for God to need me.
Karl Barth

The person who is not a fellow human being is an inhuman being.
Karl Barth

Sin is also foolishness, and foolishness is also sin.
Karl Barth

The doctrine of election is the sum of the Gospel because of all words that can be said or heard it is the best: that God elects man; that God is for man too the One who loves in freedom.
Karl Barth

Faith dares it with the Holy Spirit.
Karl Barth

Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life.
Karl Barth

I do not preach universal salvation, what I say is that I cannot exclude the possibility that God would save all men at the Judgment.
Karl Barth

As theologians we are supposed to speak of God. But we are human beings and as such cannot speak of God. We should know both — our obligation and our inability — and precisely in that give God the glory.
Karl Barth

The first and fundamental act of theological work is prayer.
Karl Barth

Grace must find expression in life, otherwise it is not grace.
Karl Barth

Faith in God's revelation has nothing to do with an ideology which glorifies the status quo.
Karl Barth

One can only have joy by making joy.
Karl Barth

The church is not bound to some natural law, but to its living Lord. Therefore it never thinks, speaks, and acts 'on principle.' Rather, it judges spiritually, and therefore case by case.
Karl Barth

In the midst of this disorder, to signify God’s kingdom as that of justice and peace, that is the prophetic commission of the church: the commission of its political watchman’s office and its social Samaritan service.
Karl Barth

For the millions that suffer unjustly, the Confessing Church does not yet have a heart.
Karl Barth

The enterprise of Adolf Hitler, with all its clatter and fireworks, and all its cunning and dynamic energy, is the enterprise of an evil spirit, which is apparently allowed its freedom for a time in order to test our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Karl Barth

The re-emergence of Israel as a people and a state must be called a real miracle.
Karl Barth

God is known only through God.
Karl Barth

45 quotes in total — browse the collection.

Sources: womenintheology.org, theologyandchurch.com, affirminggender.com

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