Reviews
In this edition, Green corrects errors and restores phrases and italicizes emphases that were omitted when the Dogmatics was translated from German to English. He provides a translator's note and an extensive introduction to Barth's life and work. While the audience for such a specialized work is limited, those scholars who may have once dismissed Barth would do well to pay the book some attention., 'Green presents a provocative argument that Barth needs to be taken seriously as a theorist of religion, alongside figures like Freud and Durkheim. This book challenges orthodoxies among both theologians and religious studies scholars.', Green's book is an outstanding contribution to how the concept of 'religion' has been appropriated by a major theological thinker. In doing so, it simultaneously addresses the hotly debated issue of the relationship of theology and the academic study of religion., "This new edition of §17 from Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics deserves wide attention, not only because it provides a fresh, updated translation of the famous section, but also because its readership has usually been limited to systematic theologians...What is striking about this text is how challenging Barth's theology continues to be. Many 'radical' theological thinkers and schools appear much less radical over time - sometimes because their insights find wide acceptance, but often simply because times change, leaving once-radical ideas out in the cold. What was once philosophically and intellectually scandalous is now simply uninteresting, and no longer a live option. One reason why Barth's theology remains as challenging as ever is because it persistently seeks its orientation in the perennial scandal of the gospel. Even for those who are unwilling to embrace the claims and implications of Barth's theory of religion, this new edition of his text will be eminently helpful in clarifying what his theory actually is." Brian Gregor, Heythrop Journal, 'Barth's account of religion in the first volume of the Church Dogmatics has been subject to all manner of misunderstanding. This superb new translation not only catches the vigour and nuance of Barth's prose, but also helps liberate the text from some conventional misperceptions. With its substantial and perceptive introduction, setting what Barth has to say in relation to contemporary study of the nature of religion, this fresh translation presents a very different Barth, of interest to theologians and theorists of religion alike.', "The extensive introduction is an invaluable asset for classroom use of this text, clarifying the place of the seventeenth chapter within Barth's thought as a whole, as well as comparing his proposal to other theories of religion. In drawing these comparisons, Green not only points out significant parallels between Barth's prospective and those of such "canonical" theorists as Drukheim and Freud, but also raises important questions about the presuppositions that affect the shaping of such canons within religious studies departments." -Ian A. McFarland, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 33, No. 2, April 2007, Karl Barth has a reputation for being the implacable foe of religion, which he is said to have rejected in the name of Christ. Garrett Green explodes this simplistic view. He gives us a Barth who is a shrewd, critically sympathetic interpreter of the human phenomenon of religion. Just as important, he gives us a Barth in English who sounds like Barth in German: intellectually probing, rhetorically dazzling, spiritually profound. This book should be required reading in courses on religion and postmodernism.
