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I have read many books, but the Bible reads me.

Karl Barth

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Karl Barth
Age: 82 †
Born: 1886
Born: May 10
Died: 1968
Died: December 10
Pastor
Theologian
University Teacher
Basle
Reads
Bible
Books
Read
Book
Many

More quotes by Karl Barth

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Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is himself the way.
Karl Barth
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Mozart's music is free of all exaggeration, of all sharp breaks and contradictions. The sun shines but does not blind, does not burn or consume. Heaven arches over the earth, but it does not weigh it down, it does not crush or devour it.
Karl Barth
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This much is certain, that we have no theological right to set any sort of limits to the loving-kindness of God which has appeared in Jesus Christ. Our theological duty is to see and understand it as being still greater than we had seen before.
Karl Barth
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To be a Christian and to pray are one and the same thing it is a matter that cannot be left to our caprice. It is a need, a kind of breathing necessary to life.
Karl Barth
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The theologian who labours without joy is not a theologian at all.
Karl Barth
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Faith is never identical with piety even if it were the purest and finest.
Karl Barth
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True theology is an actual determination and claiming of man by the acting God.
Karl Barth
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Jesus Christ, as he is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God whom we have to hear, and whom we have to trust and obey in life and in death.
Karl Barth
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When we speak of our virtues we are competitors, when we confess our sins we become brothers.
Karl Barth
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It may be that when the angels go about their task praising God, they play only Bach. I am sure, however, that when they are together en famille they play Mozart.
Karl Barth
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The Spirit bears witness. Ecstasy and enlightenment, inspiration and intuition are not necessary. Happy is the man who is worthy of these but woe unto us if we wait for such experiences woe unto us if we do not perceive that these things are of secondary importance.
Karl Barth
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What God chooses for us children of men is always the best.
Karl Barth
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Sin is not confined to the evil things we do. It is the evil within us, the evil which we are.
Karl Barth
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In Jesus, God wills to be true God not only in the height but also in the depth - in the depth of human creatureliness, sinfulness and mortality.
Karl Barth
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The relation of this God with this man the relation of this man with this God--this is the only theme of the Bible and of philosophy.
Karl Barth
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The statement that 'God is dead' comes from Nietzsche and has recently been trumpeted abroad by some German and American theologians. But the good Lord has not died of this He who dwells in the heaven laughs at them.
Karl Barth
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The Devil may also make use of morality.
Karl Barth
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'joy' in Phillippians is a defiant 'Nevertheless!' that Paul sets like a full stop against the Philippians' anxiety.
Karl Barth
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If I have a system it is limited to a recognition of what Kierkegaard called 'the infinite qualitative distinction' between time and eternity
Karl Barth
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When I come before these men I do not have to explain that we are all sinners. They have committed every sin there is. All I have to tell them is that I, too, am a sinner.
Karl Barth