Theologian's Ten Years

Swiss Theologian Karl Barth has somewhat the same position in contemporary Protestant thinking that Einstein* has in science: Barth's complex system of thought is fully appreciated only by the highbrows, but, like Einstein's, his influence is wide and deep. When the Christian Century began a series of articles by theologians on "How My Mind Has Changed in the Past Decade," it led off with the contribution of 62-year-old Karl Barth.

Published in two installments, Barth's essay might disappoint those who were looking for a stiff workout in theology. Instead he served up a chattily informal account of his past ten years (even including an operation for hernia). But among the trivia are passages of larger interest.

The passage of years, said Barth, had made him "definitely milder--in fact, more peaceable and readier to see that, after all, one is in the same boat with one's opponents . . . To say 'yes' came to seem more important than to say 'no' . . . Theologically, the message of God's grace came to seem more urgent than the message of God's law, wrath, accusation and judgment . . .

"In these ten years I have come to realize as never before how much praise man is just simply bound to give to God his Maker. This I hold a gain for the sake of which I willingly put in second place the wistful desire to be younger, though I cannot suppress that desire . . .

"Communism can be warded off only by a 'better justice' on the part of the Western world, not by the all too cheap denials in which the fear of the West is now expressing itself. Nor can I confess allegiance to ... [the] 'Christian West'; rather I think that the locus of Christianity is to be sought above today's conflict between East and West."

Before "the Assembly of the World Council of Churches at Amsterdam . . . I took no part, or only a small part, in the 'ecumenical movement,' indeed had all kinds of criticisms to make of it, since all 'movements' as such have always been and still are somewhat suspect in my eyes. But in this case I must confess, using the words in their ordinary sense, 'My mind has changed.'

"It was rewarding ... to sit down at one table with the representatives of completely different churches ... as at Amsterdam--to sit down not with the purpose of formulating a new dogma or making compromises, but with the modest yet firm purpose of reaching through discussion a clear understanding of the things about which Christendom is united and the things about which it is divided ... So many . . . things at Amsterdam were simply encouraging . . . [that] I am glad that I did not harden myself against this new experience, but kept myself open to it."

* For news of Physicist Einstein, see EDUCATION.

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