Karl Barth and the Strange New World Within the Bible: Barth, Wittgenstein, and the Metadilemmas of the Enlightenment

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Review: Karl Barth and the Strange New World within the Bible. Barth, Wittgenstein, and the Metadilemmas of the Enlightenment: 'It is a rare and exciting event to find a theologian within the English-speaking world who is so deeply involved with the current biblical debates concerning creation, covenant, and resurrection. His learned and profound analysis represents a major hermeneutical step forward as he recovers the genuine stature of Barth's interpretation of Scripture.' Brevard Childs, Sterling Professor of Divinity (Emeritus), Yale University, USA. 'Neil MacDonald has done the impossible in this amazing new book - that is, he has rescued Barth from his friends and his enemies by helping us see how Barth might end the problematics of modernity. MacDonald has, moreover, accomplished this task by an extraordinary, fruitful comparison between Wittgenstein and Barth. Anyone working in contemporary theology must read this book.' Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke University, USA. 'Brilliant and nuanced' Christopher Seitz, Professor of Old Testament and Theological Studies, University of St Andrews, Scotland. 'MacDonald has a masterly grasp of Barth's distinctive theological vision ... This is a book which will bear reading and re-reading.' Trevor Hart, Professor of Divinity, University of St Andrews, Scotland This is a new, major study of the twentieth-century theologian Karl Barth. Its chief strength is that it demonstrates the genuine intellectual force behind Barth's approach to the Bible. Drawing on the history of biblical, theological and philosophical criticism originating in the Enlightenment - and most notably on the arguments of the Austrian philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein - it dares the thought that, if Barth is right, the Bible understood the Enlightenment better than it understood the Bible, and, indeed, better than the Enlightenment understood itself: according to its own canons of inquiry it ought not to have lost faith with the Bible in the way that it did.