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Reviewed by Reviewed by Jonathan Marlowe, pastor of Shiloh United Methodist Church, Granite Quarry, NC. The Call to Discipleship by Karl Barth, translated by G. W. Bromiley, edited by K. C. Hanson Although Karl Barth is probably the most influential theologian of the 20th century, I never refer to him in any of my sermons or lessons. It is difficult enough to communicate the gospel to ordinary lay persons in the pew without burdening them with any unnecessary academic footnotes. Moreover, when I recommend books to laity about the Christian life, I usually point them towards more “user-friendly” authors like Richard Foster or Henri Nouwen. We do not expect laity (or very many clergy) to plow through the Church Dogmatics in their spare time, even if they would benefit by so doing. We are therefore in K. C. Hanson’s debt for editing this excerpt from Barth’s Church Dogmatics, vol. 4 pt. 2. Hanson’s edition makes the Dogmatics more accessible to the laity by Americanizing G. W. Bromiley’s English translation on a number of occasions, providing English translations of all technical Latin or Greek terms, and using gender-inclusive terms. Although Hanson’s edition is short enough to be read in one sitting, it is also broken down into five parts that could be used in a small group during Lent or other seasons. While Hanson updates some of the language from the Dogmatics, he preserves the greatness and the profundity of Barth. One can still hear the clarion call of discipleship interpreted through the evangelical theology of Barth. This book is in many ways a companion to Dietrich’s Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. Barth’s essay on Christian discipleship makes frequent reference to Bonhoeffer, as the one who “having written on discipleship, was ready to achieve it in his own life, and did in his own way achieve it even to the point of death.” The reader still toils with Barth’s long sentence structures, so much so that one may forget how the sentence started by the time one reaches the end. But as Barth once responded to someone who complained about the length of his books, “If anyone will not work, let him not eat.” The reader who sticks with it long enough will be rewarded by memorable expositions on the relationship between faith and obedience (“they belong together as do thunder and lightning in a thunderstorm”), as well as discipleship’s call to make a radical break with honor, human attachments, and force. On the last of these, Barth says that disciples “were neither to fear nor exercise it,” adding a mysterious statement that according to the New Testament, “we cannot be pacifist in principle, only in practice.” It was left to John Howard Yoder to sort out exactly what Barth meant by this (see his Karl Barth and the Problem of War). Throughout the book, Hanson maintains Barth’s sense of urgency surrounding the call to discipleship in a way that is compelling and fresh. With more books like these published, pastors could find ways to take advantage of Barth’s brilliance in sermons or lessons, without losing the laity in a swamp of academic footnotes.
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