Karl Barth

(1886–1968)

Karl Barth — widely regarded as the greatest Protestant theologian of the 20th century. Author of the monumental Church Dogmatics (13 volumes), his theology of the Word of God reshaped Protestant thought after the catastrophe of World War I and became the intellectual backbone of the Confessing Church's resistance to Nazism. His influence on American seminary education across every Protestant denomination was enormous.

Connection

Dan Migliore — Herbert's longtime colleague and dear friend at Princeton Theological Seminary — was personally mentored by Barth and knew him directly. The connection runs through the most central relationship in modern Protestant systematic theology.

Why Herbert Would Be Delighted

For a Lutheran pastoral theologian of Herbert's generation, Karl Barth is a kind of north star — a figure whose shadow falls across every course of systematic theology taught in any Protestant seminary in the 20th century. Being two handshakes from Barth, via one of his oldest friends, is a remarkable thing.

Cross-Connections

• Wolfhart Pannenberg – colleague of Dan Migliore in systematic theology; major figure in the post-Barth conversation in Protestant theology
• Paul Tillich – a contemporary of Barth's and theological interlocutor; both connected through Herbert's circle