Barth And Brunner

“Revelation is from God alone, scripture is from revelation alone, and preaching is from revelation and scripture”, this is what Karl Barth stated in one of his works, Church Dogmatics. This statement gives a glimpse in what Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, and C.S Lewis believe. Although within each work, they touch on semi-different topics, they all conclude that God’s word is uniquely and wonderfully made—no matter what the interpretation or the understanding behind the scriptures. Karl Barth was a Swiss Protestant theologian in the twentieth century. One of his most famous works, Church Dogmatics, was actually written for Barth’s class at the University of Gottingen during 1924-1925. The major theme of his work is the priority of divine revelation.

It was one of his many beliefs within his relationship with God. Another belief that Barth had that was controversial was within the “most interesting debate” with Emil Brunner. Brunner and Barth were both Swiss Protestant theologians. They discussed natural theology, and one of their main differences was if the Word of God overwhelmed humanity, by commanding assent and an appropriate response, or by addressing humanity—aiming to elicit such a response. The first was Barth’s opinion, and the latter was Brunner’s. Although both Barth and Brunner shared many similarities, their differences could both be valid due to different interpretations of the Word. Though Brunner’s opinion stuck out the most. Brunner mentions this: “God speaks to us in a language we can understand so we do not become overwhelmed”. I found this statement very true, which allowed me to lean closer to Brunner’s interpretation of how the Word of God may overwhelm humanity. If God wanted to overwhelm humanity by commanding assent, than in Genesis 2, God would not have given Adam a choice—rather He said, “You are free to

Due to the different types of religions, it is clear that there can be similarities between Christianity and other religions. In fact, C.S Lewis notes that “it is to be expected” within her work of “Is Theology Poetry?”. Lewis talks about how theology could be seen as “mere poetry” and her main reason being that it contains elements that are similar to those that we find in many early, and eve, savage, religions. These early religions may now be seen to us today as poetical. Reading Lewis’ work gave insight on the different ways that Christianity can be seen in other religions that have different gods and ways of viewing, or living