Doxological Theology: Karl Barth on Divine Providence, Evil, and the Angels

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In 1949, Karl Barth confidently upholds a high doctrine of divine providence, main-taining God's control of every event in history. His argument is at once cheerful, but also defiant in the face of a Europe that is war-weary and doubtful of the full sovereignty of God.

Barth's movement to praise God shows his affin-ity for the Reformed theological tradition. While Barth often distances himself from his Calvinist predecessors in important ways, he sees his own view of providence to be a positive reworking of the Reformed position in order to maintain what he un-derstands as its most important insights: the praiseworthiness of the God of provi-dence and the doxology of the creature. Doxological Theology investigates how the theologian, in response to the praiseworthy God of the Reformed tradition, is ex-pected to pray his or her way through the doctrine of providence.

Reviews

Of the making of books about Barth's theology there appears to be no end. All credit to Christopher Green, then; for focusing on a relatively unexplored corner of Barth's thought - his doctrine of providence - and for doing it the way Barth does it, using the Lord's Prayer as an interpretive framework. This is an exceptionally close reading of Barth's christological correction of a central pillar of Reformed theology.' - Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Blanchard Professor of Theology, Wheaton College Graduate School, USA -- Kevin J. Vanhoozer
In this book Green offers a careful and insightful exploration of volume III/3 of Barth's /Church Dogmatics/ - one of the most important yet one of the least investigated parts of Barth's corpus. Green's exposition and analysis proceeds with both a deep sensitivity for the internal coherence of the rather diverse topics covered in III/3 and a firm awareness of the broader content and form of Barth's theology. At times creative, at times controversial, Green is always engaging: this book is destined to become a necessary conversation-point for any future work in this research area.' - Paul T. Nimmo, The University of Edinburgh, UK. -- Paul T. Nimmo
Barth scholars will be engaged with Greens adjudication of the various related issues vis--vis the relevant secondary literature especially in the footnotes, while a range of other readers, from postliberals to evangelicals and even pentecostals, will appreciate the fundamentally performative theology of providence presented in this excellent first book. -- Amos Young, Regent University School of Divinity * Religious Studies Review *
Christopher Green has provided a lucid examination of Church Dogmatics III/3, showing how, for Barth, a commitment to belief in Gods providence compels the human creature to pray for Gods will to be done on earth as in heaven ... Greens study is articulate and well crafted, and is more an attentive and appreciative commentary than a critique (his critical comments surface mainly in footnotes and the concluding chapter). Comparison of Barth with other scholars on providence and evil should not be expected, for Green purposely wants to give ear to Barths voice alone, and he does so admirably ... Throughout, Green expertly draws out the themes of prayer and praise as they shape Barths engagement with and correction of the Reformed tradition ... Doxological Theology is a masterly analysis of a challenging text. -- Terry J. Wright, Spurgeons College, UK * Journal of Theological Studies (Vol. 64.2) *

Author Bio

Christopher Green earned his PhD from King's College, Aberdeen and is Lecturer in Theology at Wesley Institute; Sydney, Australia.