The Essential Karl Barth

Johnson's scholarship of Barth's work is accessible; which is impressive given the subject matter. He provides not only an interesting overview of Barth's life and legacy, but a valuable resource (part 2) in his summaries of the main areas of theology that formed Barth's life's work, Church Dogmatics. Part of what makes The Essential Karl Barth simultaneously stimulating, entertaining, and educational is the frequent insertion of Barth's correspondence with others, his lecture notes, or other chosen writings. In these, we see Barth's brilliance, but also his dry wit and deep desire to have people to see God as revealed to humanity in Jesus Christ. Johnson has done an exceptional job of distilling a difficult read (if you've ever attempted to read a volume of Church Dogmatics cover-to-cover, you'll know) and presenting Barth as a real person who has true theological flourish but also is not without human flaws. This book is a valuable primer for those who are not yet familiar with Barth, and a worthwhile resource that has captured the essence of all Barth's major arguments into short helpful chapters.

Dont be fooled by the title, just because the word "Essential" is in there, it does not mean this is a small book nor an easy read. Barth was very complex and this book does a great job familiarizing the reader with him. I did not know much about Barth before reading this book, but I can now say with confidence that I understand Barth fairly well.

The authors seem to be up to date on the latest discoveries in regards to Barth and I would recommend this book.

I’m not quite sure how to rate this book. As a detailed introduction to Karl Barth’s theology, it is superb. However, I find parts of Karl Barth’s theology itself problematic (e.g. the Bible becomes a means of God personally revealing himself to us but is not itself revelation, the vague answers on the origin/nature of evil and possibility of universalism, taking as a starting point God as “wholly other” who cannot be known through any “creaturely” means, etc.). I have neither the desire nor skill to engage in a detailed critique of Barth’s theology, but suffice it to say that an overall positive rating on this book is by no means an endorsement of his theology.

That said, I think that you can learn more about someone’s views on life, the universe, and everything by reading their writings rather than by reading someone else’s criticism of their writings. The format of this book allows you to dip into significant excerpts from Barth’s massive body of writings and see how his theology grew and changed over time (as well as how it led him to interact with German politics up to and during World War II). Copious endnotes provide a running commentary on the text. I would strongly recommend the electronic version of this over the print version as it is much more convenient for toggling back and forth between text and explanatory notes.

In summary: if you are interested in Karl Barth and his “Neo-Orthodox” theology this works beautifully as an introduction. I would also recommend reading critical responses to his theology, but start with the man himself if you want to know what he actually believed and taught.