Book Review: Barth for Armchair Theologians

Franke, John R.  Barth for Armchair Theologians.  Louisville: John Knox, 2006.  xi+183

Interest in the theology of Karl Barth remains at a near fever pitch.  For those preparing for a career in theology, staring at the tombs of the Church Dogmatics can be overwhelming.  As a former professor of mine once said, there is no substitute for reading the man himself.  While there is certainly wisdom in that remark, introductions to his thought can be a welcome aid to the daunting volume of Barth’s work.  In this short work, John Franke attempts to provide a helpful introduction to this great theologian.

To help the novice, Franke combines both historical and theological developments.  The bulk of the book centers on Barth’s life and theological pilgrimage, but at key points Franke detours to explain the significance of a time, place, or writing for Barth’s emerging thought.  This has the effect of helping the reader reach the chapter on the Church Dogmatics, the point all of Franke’s earlier writing is moving towards, with a decent sense of how Barth arrived at the convictions he did at the Church Dogmatics, and why they matter so much to him.

The centerpiece of this book is a chapter devoted to Barth’s crowning achievement, the Church Dogmatics.  Before summarizing the contents of each volume, he sets some broader contours of the work.  Franke briefly overviews Barth view of faith & reason, the shape & structure of the CD, and how to go about reading this enormous and complex work.  Regarding strategies for comprehension he summarizes the six “patterns” found in Barth’s work as understood by George Hunsinger.  This is a helpful inclusion as it gives the new reader of the CD a set of broader lens through which to begin to understand Barth.  For someone like myself who has been exposed to Barth numerous times but is not an expert, these six categories helped to clarify for me what I find compelling about Barth & what I don’t.  While the summaries of each volume are well done, I benefitted most from context-setting work Franke does.

The book concludes with an evaluation of Barth’s legacy.  It is at this stage that the debate surrounding McCormack’s project is discussed.  Up to this last chapter Franke’s opinion regarding how to best read Barth (turn to analogy vs. McCormack’s reading) had remained relatively well hidden from view, but at this juncture McCormack’s reading gets Franke’s stamp of approval.  Both traditional and postmodern interpreters of Barth will be dissappointed with Franke’s sympathies with McCormack’s views, although Franke is charitable in his evaluations.  Furthermore, this chapter is invaluable for the book regardless of this inner squabble since the real prize of the chapter is how Franke demonstrates the importance of Barth’s thought for the future of theology, something all parties can agree on.

 Franke has offered an accessible and entertaining introduction to both the life and thought of Barth.  Franke’s work creates a level of desire to engage Barth himself, which should be the goal of any primer of a major theologian.  He helps the reader see why Barth matters, for both yesterday and tomorrow, and provides tools to begin the exploration.  As someone who would consider myself somewhere between a beginner and an expert, I profitted from reading this work, and highly recommend it to anyone interested in Karl Barth.

On Studying Theology

Over @ Evan’s blog there was a recent discussion regarding how one should begin to learn theology.  To simplify the discussion, two main approaches emerged in the comments section:

1. Read a lot of classic works from diverse writers.  Read widely
2. Read a historical overview, then start digging deep into a single theologian.  Read deeply.

Here is my two cents on this: integration.  Both perspectives need to be brought together.  There are obvious reasons for this.  To merely read widely means one misses the depth and nuance many thinkers have.  On the other hand, to give history a cursory glance & focus mainly on someone like Karl Barth (a real temptation for beginning thinkers who live in certain parts of the theo-blogosphere city), is to likely miss the complex contextual factors that led to a person’s thought.  Furthermore, while a simple embrace of the postmodern suspicion of metanarrative may be unhelpful, there is wisdom in a wide reading of history, lest one “history” dominate one’s thinking.  Basically, if you think either/or on this type of deal, you are likely to misread both. 

There are probably many different ways to do this, but here is how I am trying to integrate both perspectives.  I try to section my studying off in months.  Each month is devoted to a single thinker, movement, etc in theology.  However, in the same month I try to read at least one work in the history of theology, Christianity, etc.  My belief is that reading both comprehensively & specifically within the field is mutually enriching, & each perspective provides a helpful platform on which to think about the other.  In this way, the study of theology is like spiritual formation, spiraling ever downward into a better understanding in both scope and specificity.

In sum, the key to studying theology is to remember your sunday school songs: read “deep & wide, deep & wide . . .”

CV Help

A couple schools I am looking into for PhD work want me to attach/mail them my CV.  Problem is, I haven’t written one.

So, I’m calling out to the blogosphere for help.  How should  i format the CV?  What should I include?

New Blog Name!

Welcome to my “new” blog!  The new name reflects my sentiments  in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way as I seek to honor God both in ministry & in the search to understand & know Him.  Also, it is a bit odd, which seems to suit me well.  I really like it.  While the theme may be wordpress stock, it has always been one of my favorites.  In the future, bio & belief updates are coming.

Thanks to those of you who offered sugggestions.  Please update your blogrolls everyone!

Awkward Moments in Middle School Ministry #1

With the renaming of this blog to happen soon, I hae decided to start one of my future series ahead of time, named “Awkward Moments in Middle School Ministry.”  These will range from the theological to the physically comedic.  Without further ado, let’s get this started!

After a rousing game of touch football last night, myself, a sponsor, & a group of 6th & 7th grade boys were walking back into the building.  One 6th grader started a conversation with me: 

Student: Am I good person?

Me (taken aback & fumbling for an answer): Well, you are b/c Jesus loves you.

Student: Then can you give me money?

As you can tell by my answer, i wasn’t sure what to say to such an unprovoked existential query, but luckily he didn’t care about my answer, but only what “purchase” his “good-person” status could earn with me.  Awkward.  On the bright side, student ministry is great for theological work b/c conversations like these remind me that while what we do as theologians is important, it isn’t everything.

Metamorphosis

Hello everyone, after a long hiatus, I am back.  I took the GRE earlier in the week.  Suffice it to say that I didn’t do as well as I had hoped for, but depending on who you talk to it sounds like I succeeded where I needed to, so it should be okay.  So all that is left for me to do is logistic work & prayer, lots of prayer.  While this is scary, for the next few months i have more time than i have had in years to pursue my own academic interests & hobbies, one of which is blogging.

With all that in mind, I think it is time to reinvent things around ATP.  The main changes will be in the mood & purpose of this blog.  I have viewed myself as a pilgrim, someone in process in my theological understanding.  While a sober judgment of one’s capabilities has its value, negatively it has made me too guarded, to afraid of being “exposed” as an idiot.  To be truthful, this has sucked the fun out of blogging &, i have come to think, missed the point of doing it in the 1st place.  This is honestly one of the main reasons why my production has ground to a halt; it has become much too serious an enterprise for me.  Sadly, it has also made it hard for me to learn, which was one of my main hopes for doing this.

I am hoping to loosen things up around here.  I still want to dive into theological matters of substance consistently, but instead of trying to create “finished products,” this will be more of a sounding board for reflection on those topics.  Also, in the past i have hid a bit of my personality & other interests; that is over.  Basically, I am ready to have fun with it, & if occasionally people think I am dumb (often?), then so be it.

Why do you need to know all this, dear reader?  Am I so self-absorbed that I will write a long post about my own blogging issues?  Well, yes, but more importantly, I would like your help in renaming this blog in keeping with this new attitude.  Please comment if you have any suggestions, & if you are new here, do some browsing to get a feel for the subjects I tend to gravitate towards.  I will make a change soon, so if you have thoughts, let me know quickly.

Shepherding Middle School Students in a Nutshell

I have really wanted to post lately, but the GRE is consuming me; it is less than 2 weeks away.  So, for brevity’s sake i thought I would post a video that a couple of my middle school students showed me recently.  I think it captures the joys & challenges of shepherding middle school students nicely: