the angels laugh...

The Episcopal Church today celebrates the provisional feast day (and the anniversary of the death) of the theologian Karl Barth. In a reaction to the prevailing theological liberalism of his day, Barth, in his "The Epistle to the Romans" and, of course in his magnum opus, "Church Dogmatics" argued for the complete otherness of God and His perfect revelation in Jesus Christ. An author of the Barmen Declaration, Barth stood for Christ against Hitler and became a founder of the Confessing Church.

Feast Day Prayer:

"PRAYER Almighty God, source of justice beyond human knowledge: We offer thanks that thou didst inspire Karl Barth to resist tyranny and exalt thy saving grace, without which we cannot apprehend thy will. Teach us, like him, to live by faith, and even in chaotic and perilous times to perceive the light of thy eternal glory, Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, throughout all ages. Amen."

He was not without humor.  His "Dogmatics" is comprised of numerous difficult (to say the least) volumes.  He once said to a student:

"The angels laugh at old Karl. They laugh at him because he tries to grasp the truth about God in a book of Dogmatics. They laugh at the fact that volume follows volume, and each is thicker than the previous ones. As they laugh, they say to one another, ‘Look! Here he comes now with his little pushcart full of volumes of the Dogmatics!’—and they laugh about the persons who write so much about Karl Barth instead of writing about the things he is trying to write about. Truly, the angels laugh.”

and one more quote:

"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." Karl Barth

RIP and Blessings