This book, resulting from the Karl Barth centenary year in 1986, brings together a collection of essays which makes an important contribution to Barth interpretation. Few would dispute the fact that Karl Barth is one of the great figures of twentieth-century theology, and two decades after his death he continues to fascinate those who study the field and his own thought in the magisterial unfinished Church Dogmatics. Yet while his impact and influence upon modern theology has been great, Barth has been subject, too, to suspicion and sometimes to fierce opposition. The contributors to the book examine and refute some of the more simplistic reasons why the thought of Karl Barth has had a somewhat limited appeal in modern English-language theology. Writing from a variety of ecclesiastical persuasions, Reformed, Lutheran, Anglican and Roman Catholic, the authors seek to demonstrate, at a fundamental level, the continuing importance of some of Barth's major concerns.Collectively, the essays constitute a positive introduction to Barth, to his place in the history of the philosophy of religion, as a constructive theologian, as a churchman, and in specific relation to the modern history of English-language theology.This book, resulting from the Karl Barth centenary year in 1986, brings together a collection of essays which makes an important contribution to Barth interpretation. Few would dispute the fact that Karl Barth is one of the great figures of twentieth-century theology, and two decades after his death he continues to fascinate those who study the field and his own thought in the magisterial unfinished Church Dogmatics. Yet while his impact and influence upon modern theology has been great, Barth has been subject, too, to suspicion and sometimes to fierce opposition. The contributors to the book examine and refute some of the more simplistic reasons why the thought of Karl Barth has had a somewhat limited appeal in modern English-language theology.Writing from a variety of ecclesiastical persuasions, Reformed, Lutheran, Anglican and Roman Catholic, the authors seek to demonstrate, at a fundamental level, the continuing importance of some of Barth's major concerns. Collectively, the essays constitute a positive introduction to Barth, to his place in the history of the philosophy of religion, as a constructive theologian, as a churchman, and in specific relation to the modern history of English-language theology.