John McDowell's Theology and Philosophy Page

 [This page is being updated and the papers will appear in due time]. 

 Karl Barth (1886-1968) has been arguably the most significant and, in one way or another, the most influential theologian of the twentieth century.  If the number of recent publications is anything to measure his continuing importance by, it appears that the twentieth first century cannot forget him either.  The indications are that Barth's shadow still casts itself substantially over much of what passes for theological discourse.  

         This 'Karl Barth' page has been composed with the intention of:
-- Reminding academic theology and the churches of the continuing significance of Barth's work;
-- Encouraging a better acquaintance with his work;
-- Challenging many of the ways in which Barth is commonly popularly understood;
-- Providing a forum for refocusing reflections on his oeuvre;
-- Making widely available some of my own (developing) thoughts on Barth's life and theology.

BARTH BOOKS 

·        Hope in Barth’s Eschatology:  Interrogations and Transformations Beyond Tragedy (Aldershot/Burlington/Singapore/Sydney:  Ashgate, 2000). 

·        (co-ed.) Conversing With Barth, edited by Mike A. Higton and John C. McDowell (Aldershot/Burlington/Singapore/Sydney:  Ashgate, 2004). 

BARTH ARTICLES 

·        ‘For What May We Legitimately Hope?  Karl Barth’s “Theology of Hope”’, Whitefield Briefings 5.5 (July, 2000). 

·        ‘Learning Where to Place One’s Hope:  The Eschatological Significance of Election in Barth’, Scottish Journal of Theology 53.3 (2000), 316-338. 

·        ‘A Response to Rodney Holder on Barth on Natural Theology’, Themelios, 27.2 (2002), 32-44. 

·        ‘Enfleshing a Phantom Figure:  Timothy Gorringe’s Contextualised Barth’, Quodlibet Journal 4.2-3 (Summer 2002), http://www.quodlibet.net/. 

·        ‘Much Ado About Nothing:  Karl Barth’s Being Unable to Do Nothing About Nothingness’, International Journal of Systematic Theology 4.3 (2002), 319-335. 

·        ‘Timothy Gorringe’s Contextualised Barth’, Evangelical Quarterly 74 (2002), 333-350. 

·        ‘Theology as Conversational Event:  Karl Barth, the Ending of “Dialogue” and the Beginning of “Conversation”’, Modern Theology 19.4 (2003), 483-509. 

·        With Mike Higton, ‘Introduction:  Barth, Conversationalist and Conversation Partner’, in Mike Higton and John C. McDowell (eds.), Conversing With Barth (Aldershot, et al:  Ashgate, 2004), 1-13. 

·        ‘“Mend Your Speech a Little”:  Reading Karl Barth’s Das Nichtige Through Donald MacKinnon’s Tragic Vision’, in Mike Higton and John C. McDowell (eds.), Conversing With Barth (Aldershot, et al:  Ashgate, 2004), 142-172. 

·        ‘Karl Barth’s Having No-Thing to Hope For’, Journal of Christian Theological Research 10 (2006), 1-49. 

·        ‘Karl Barth’, in New Dictionary of Christian Apologetics (Leicester:  IVP, 2006). 

·        ‘Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, and the Subjectivity of the Object of Christian Hope’, International Journal of Systematic Theology 8.1 (Jan 2006), 25-41. 

·        ‘“Openness to the World”:  Karl Barth’s Evangelical Theology of Christ as the Pray-er’, Modern Theology 25.2 (2009), 253-283. 

BARTH RELATED BOOK REVIEWS 

·        Review of Trevor A. Hart, Regarding Karl Barth, in Evangelical Quarterly, DETAILS (2001). 

·        Review of Richard E. Burnett, Karl Barth’s Theological Exegesis, in Expository Times 114 (2003), 391-2. 

·        Review of Gordon H. Clark, Karl Barth’s Theological Method, in Evangelical Quarterly. 

·        Review of William Stacy Johnson, The Mystery of God, in Evangelical Quarterly. 

·        Review of John Yocum, Ecclesial Mediation in Karl Barth, in Theology 108 (2005), 285-286. 

·        Review of John Yocum, Ecclesial Mediation in Karl Barth, in SJT 59.4 (2006), 493-495. 

·        Review of John W. Hart, Barth Vs. Brunner, in Evangelical Quarterly 79.3 (2007), 283-286. 

·        Review of Kimlyn J. Bender, Karl Barth’s Christological Ecclesiology, in Theology DETAILS. 

·        Review of David Clough, Ethics in Crisis:  Interpreting Barth’s Ethics, in IJST, DETAILS. 

·        Review of John R. Franke, Barth for Armchair Theologians, in Expository Times, DETAILS. 

·        Review of Sung Wook Chung (ed.), Karl Barth and Evangelical Theology, in Theology DETAILS. 

 FORTHCOMING BARTH PUBLICATIONS

·        Theology as Conversational Event:  Reading Karl Barth (forthcoming, 2011/12). 

·        ‘Prayer and Particularity’, in Myk Hybets (ed.), Trinitarian Theology After Barth (London and New York:  Continuum, forthcoming 2010). 

·        ‘Hope’, in Karl Barth Dictionary (Louisville:  Westminster John Knox Press, forthcoming 2010). 

·        ‘Evil’, in Karl Barth Dictionary (Louisville:  Westminster John Knox Press, forthcoming 2010).