Barth, Karl

Karl Barth (1886–1968) numbers among the most important Protestant theologians of the twentieth century. A prolific writer, he authored The Epistle to the Romans and the multivolume Church Dogmatics , as well as numerous exegetical, historical, and political works. This entry examines five enduring features of Barth's thought: (i) an affirmation of the centrality of scripture for Christian theology; (ii) an incisive critique of religion, matched with an insistence that God's self‐revelation provides the best starting point for theological inquiry; (iii) a bold conceptualization of God and (iv) Jesus Christ; and (v) a distinctive account of human freedom, which opens out into a dynamic vision of Christian community and witness.