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 (1886–1968), Theologe

Karl Barth

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.

All quotes by Karl Barth (45)

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The Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid.
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The law is divine and holy. Let the law have its glory, but yet no law, be it never so divine and holy, ought to teach me that I am justified, and shall live through it. I grant it may teach me that I ought to love God and my neighbor; also to live in love, soberness, patience, etc., but it ought not to show me how I should be delivered from sin, the devil, death, and hell. Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teaches me, not what I ought to do but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me: that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel wills me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually.
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