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Rating: 
Summary: Great Introductory Selection of Barth's Theology
Review: "Church Dogmatics: A Selection" is an excellent introduction to the theology of Karl Barth. Anyone even remotely acquainted with Christian theology cannot dispute the fact that Karl Barth is one of the most relevant and scholarly theological minds of our time. He articulated some of the most basic, yet profound truths of the Bible at a time when mainstream Christian theology had begun to place less and less emphasis on the Bible as God's inspired Word. He dialogues with the great theologians and philosophers from Luther to Calvin, to the scholastics, to his contemporaries. The unifying thread through his writing is the person of Jesus Christ, as witnessed in scripture. Barth, in his Church Dogmatics, did what no other modern theologian has been able to do with such clarity- he synthesized a millenium of Christian thought and focused it through the lens of what scripture says about Christ. His Doctrine of the Word of God is an amazing and thorough exposition of the topic- to get the full thrust of what Barth was saying, though, I would recommend working through the multi-volume set of his Church Dogmatics. For introductory or casual reading (if such a thing is possible), I would highly recommend starting with this concise volume. Best wishes on your theological quest!
Rating:
Summary: Great Introductory Selection of Barth's Theology
Review: "Church Dogmatics: A Selection" is an excellent introduction to the theology of Karl Barth. Anyone even remotely acquainted with Christian theology cannot dispute the fact that Karl Barth is one of the most relevant and scholarly theological minds of our time. He articulated some of the most basic, yet profound truths of the Bible at a time when mainstream Christian theology had begun to place less and less emphasis on the Bible as God's inspired Word. He dialogues with the great theologians and philosophers from Luther to Calvin, to the scholastics, to his contemporaries. The unifying thread through his writing is the person of Jesus Christ, as witnessed in scripture. Barth, in his Church Dogmatics, did what no other modern theologian has been able to do with such clarity- he synthesized a millenium of Christian thought and focused it through the lens of what scripture says about Christ. His Doctrine of the Word of God is an amazing and thorough exposition of the topic- to get the full thrust of what Barth was saying, though, I would recommend working through the multi-volume set of his Church Dogmatics. For introductory or casual reading (if such a thing is possible), I would highly recommend starting with this concise volume. Best wishes on your theological quest!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introduction to Barth
Review: For those who want to a hearty taste of Karl Barth's Church Dogmactics, this is the book. The only reason this book isn't ranked higher in my mind is that its divisions of Barth's theology by topics sometimes break up coherent arguments. Still this is the best book short of reading every volume of Barth's Church Dogmatics.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introduction to Barth
Review: Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics is one of the most important theological treatises of all-time, which set the agenda for religious thinking in the first half of the 20th Century. However, its sheer size and depth (reminiscent of Aquinas' Summa Theologiae) frequently discourage average readers from delving into its treasury of insights. Professor Gollwitzer's short selection of the Dogmatics provides a useful introduction to Barth's most important themes, especially his understanding of revelation, Christology, and salvation. Great reading for any serious college or seminary student who wants to wrestle with the mind of this great Christian thinker!
Rating:
Summary: For anyone who *enjoys* eating unheated oatmeal!
Review: Okay, this is probably high heresy, but Barth is *the* most over-rated theologian of the last century and *one* of the most over-rated intellects overall. His early stuff serves as a prelude for that monstrosity produced by Bultmann and his later stuff (post controversy with Brunner) is just bizarre. The product of a Germanic mind in love with his own ratiocination and *sitzfliesch.*CHURCH DOGMATICS is a work of monumental irrelevance, published 1400 years too late and only fit for consumption by hard core systematic theology junkies today. I defy anyone to find *any* pastoral use from it and I question if anyone finds any insight into *biblical* theology (the only one that *really* matters) from it. Otherwise, for graduate students by all means use this to avoid the soul numbing experience of the full multi-volume work. Selah.
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