Summary | God here and now (1964)

What is this about? God Here and Now is a book written by the Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968), one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. In his book, Bath expresses his views on the Bible, the Church, gospel, faith, grace, ethics, and humanism.

Why bother? The book can help us under Barth's brilliant, creative, and influential thoughts on theology. 

Key Ideas Barth's idea was influenced by Protestant theology and Immanuel Kant. In this book, Barth makes many points. In short, we can summarize them as follows: 

• Who is God? Barthrefer God as "the wholly other." who is actively creating everything. 
• We cannot know God. Bath believes God is not knowable through scripture as orthodox says., nor can we understand it through the spiritual sixth sense suggested by Liberal Protestant theology. We can't understand the world directly.  We simply use sensory and cognitive tools – our senses and minds—to perceive the world. Because of this limitation, we can't know God, who is everywhere and at all times.
• We can experience God's presence through Revelation, in which God has its sovereign freedom to decide when to reveal himself to us, just as the Revelation recorded in the bible. ​

Fun Fact: Enjoyable learning is that "-logy" has both meanings of knowledge and speaking in ancient Greek. Therefore, theology can means knowledge of God or talking about God. ​