Synopses & Reviews
Colin Gunton was world renowned as a scholar, systematic theologian and Reformed minister; however, he never lived to fulfill his ambition to write a book devoted solely to Barth. Gunton on Barth is an in-depth analysis, derived from the lecture course he gave most years at King's College London: something of an annual institution it was aimed at undergraduates, though the majority of those attending were MA/PhD students, and researchers from America and Germany! Approximately half of the work consists of quotations representing an essential understanding: Colin was a creative lecturer, although he worked from notes he gave space to the free rein of his mind particularly when fielding questions or trying to analyze a particular strand of Barth's thought. Colin's understanding and expertise was world renowned. He did not take all Barth wrote uncritically, he struggled and wrestled with this giant of twentieth-century theology: as he always said at the beginning of the course, "Not everyone buys into Barth ... I don't, all the way along the line, as I get older I get more and more dissatisfied with the details of his working out of the faith ... over the years I think I have developed a reasonable view of this great man who is thoroughly exciting and particularly, I can guarantee, if you do this course, that you will be a better theologian by the third year, whether or not you agree with him ... he is a great man to learn to think theologically with."
Synopsis
Colin Gunton was world renowned as a scholar, systematic theologian and Reformed minister; however, he never lived to fulfill his ambition to write a book devoted solely to Barth. Gunton on Barth is an in-depth analysis, derived from the lecture course he gave most years at King's College London: something of an annual institution it was aimed at undergraduates, though the majority of those attending were MA/PhD students, and researchers from America and Germany! Approximately half of the work consists of quotations representing an essential understanding: Colin was a creative lecturer, although he worked from notes he gave space to the free rein of his mind particularly when fielding questions or trying to analyze a particular strand of Barth's thought. Colin's understanding and expertise was world renowned. He did not take all Barth wrote uncritically, he struggled and wrestled with this giant of twentieth-century theology: as he always said at the beginning of the course, "Not everyone buys into Barth ... I don't, all the way along the line, as I get older I get more and more dissatisfied with the details of his working out of the faith ... over the years I think I have developed a reasonable view of this great man who is thoroughly exciting and particularly, I can guarantee, if you do this course, that you will be a better theologian by the third year, whether or not you agree with him ... he is a great man to learn to think theologically with."
Table of Contents
1. The intellectual background to Karl Barth2. Barth's development up to Romans3. The decade after Romans4. The basis, task and situation of theology5. Barth on the Trinity and the personal God6. The being of God as the one who loves in freedom7. Election according to Church Dogmatics 2/28. Ethics Church Dogmatics Chapter VIII9. Barth and the knowlegde of God10. Barth's doctrine of reconciliation in Church Dogmatics IV/1-211. Church Dogmatics IV/1, 59.1 The way of the son into the far country12. Atonement as divine act13. Platonism and Exemplarism in Barth's Christology14. Christ the mediator in Karl Barth's theology15. Reconciliation and the believer16. Barth on creation