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I take the Bible far too seriously to take it literally.

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
Literally
Seriously
Bible
Take

More quotes by Karl Barth

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Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so?
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There will be no song on our lips if there be no anguish in our hearts.
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I don’t believe in universalism, but I do believe in Jesus Christ, the reconciler of all
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'joy' in Phillippians is a defiant 'Nevertheless!' that Paul sets like a full stop against the Philippians' anxiety.
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He [Jesus Christ] is the Master of all as the Servant of all.
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A free theologian works in communication with other theologians...He waits for them and asks them to wait for him. Our sadly lacking yet indispensable theological co-operation depends directly or indirectly on whether or not we are wiling to wait for one another, perhaps lamenting, yet smiling with tears in our eyes.
Karl Barth
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Mozart's music is an invitation to the listener to venture just a little out of the sense of his own subjectivity.
Karl Barth
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Grace and gratitude go together like heaven and earth.
Karl Barth
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With an ear open to your musical dialectic, one can be young and become old, can work and rest, be content and sad: in short, one can live.
Karl Barth
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The theologian who labours without joy is not a theologian at all.
Karl Barth
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What expressions we used - in part taken over and in part newly invented! above all, the famous 'wholly other' breaking in upon us 'perpendicularly from above,' the not less famous 'infinite qualitative distinction' between God and man, the vacuum, the mathematical point, and the tangent in which alone they must meet.
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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Whether the angels play only Bach praising God, I am not quite sure.
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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Man can certainly flee from God... but he cannot escape him. He can certainly hate God and be hateful to God, but he cannot change into its opposite the eternal love of God which triumphs even in his hate.
Karl Barth
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I have read many books, but the Bible reads me.
Karl Barth
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God listens to Bach while the angels listen to 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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The theologian who labors without joy is not a theologian at all. Sulky faces, morose thoughts and boring ways of speaking are intolerable in this field.
Karl Barth
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The enterprise of Adolf Hitler, with all its clatter and fireworks, and all its cunning and dynamic energy, is the enterprise of an evil spirit, which is apparently allowed its freedom for a time in order to test our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Karl Barth