Reading Barth with Charity - Paperback

by George Hunsinger (Preface by)

Karl Barth and his legacy have dominated theology circles for over a decade. In this volume George Hunsinger, a world-renowned expert on Barth's theology, makes an authoritative contribution to the debate concerning Barth's trinitarian theology and doctrine of election. Hunsinger challenges a popular form of Barth interpretation pertaining to the Trinity, demonstrating that there is no major break in Barth's thought between the earlier and the later Barth of the Church Dogmatics. Hunsinger also discusses important issues in trinitarian theology and Christology that extend beyond the contemporary Barth debates. This major statement will be valued by professors and students of systematic theology, scholars, and readers of Barth.

Back Jacket

George Hunsinger has mastered the rare art of combining passion with clarity, and polemics with charity. Reading Barth with Charity not only shows readers what Karl Barth did--and did not--have to say about the Trinity and election but also instructs them in the wider tradition of Christian reflection on God. I would not be surprised if it turned out to be a modern classic.
--Joe Mangina, Wycliffe College, University of Toronto

"George Hunsinger has been in the front ranks of the traditionalist reading of Karl Barth over against revisionist interpretations. In this masterful book, he gives us a spirited, rigorous, and comprehensive presentation of the traditionalist tenet that Barth considered God's antecedent trinitarian perfection to be the ground for the divine acts of creation and election. The brilliance of this account extends beyond internal Barthian debates and illumines crucial issues in contemporary Christology and trinitarian theology."
--Khaled Anatolios, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry

"With his usual sharp, logical precision, George Hunsinger offers a ringing challenge to the revisionist interpretation of Barth's theology. In so doing, he champions a reading of Barth that is more thoroughly trinitarian, evangelical, and (broadly speaking) catholic. A major contribution to Barth studies, and at the same time a rigorous, lucid introduction to Barth's theology for nonspecialists."
--Martha Moore-Keish, Columbia Theological Seminary

"Hunsinger presents a careful and deliberate analysis of Barth's Church Dogmatics and stresses that for Barth, God is the one who loves in freedom. Hunsinger argues convincingly that God's relation to the world stands in correspondence to and is a repetition of God's Trinity."
--Christiane Tietz, Institute of Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion, University of Zurich, Switzerland

"Reading Barth with Charity offers a long-needed corrective to the revisionist readings of Barth. Professor Hunsinger's work is an authoritative and accessible guide to the disputed questions of Barth's theology, especially his doctrine of the Trinity and election and his account of divine action. Highly recommended!"
--Paul L. Gavrilyuk, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota

Author Biography

George Hunsinger (PhD, Yale University) is Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. He is best known for his critically acclaimed work in Barth's theology and has been president of the Karl Barth Society of North America since 2003.