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| Nathan Bickel |
Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Breaking News: Barth-Kirschbaum, Braaten, and UOJ....":
Ichabod,
Thank you for posting this about the late liberal esteemed Karl Barth. I say, "Liberal, esteemed," because, up until this Ichabod posting, I never knew anything much about Barth, except that he was highly regarded by some, to be, a first rate (questionable and liberal) theologian.
I offer a few comments of this Ichabod posting regarding Suzanne Selinger's book, as it is reviewed by George Hunsinger. By reading his review, I think that it leaves the reader with more questions, than answers - most, likely, better, that way....:
Hunsinger says the following:
(1) "........This arrangement -- convoluted, extremely painful for all concerned, yet not without integrity and joys -- lasted for nearly 35 years until 1964 when von Kirschbaum had to be admitted to a nursing home with Alzheimer's disease. These were exactly the years of Barth's most productive intellectual life.......
My comment:
Oh! really? - I wonder why that was so? I thought Barth's attraction to this highly intelligent woman was her love of theology, - and that they "shared" this mutual "interest?"
Hunsinger says the following:
........From her first encounter with his theology in her youth to the very end of her life, she felt gripped by a sense of the greatness of Barth's contribution, an excitement that she once described simply with the words, "This is it!" During one of Barth's last visits to her in the nursing home, she said, "We had some good times together, didn't we?".......
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| Barth's helper, Charlotee Kirschbaum, was so productive that he wrote almost nothing after she became ill. Frank Fiorenza, Harvard professor, said most of Barth is now considered Kirschbaum's work. Either way, Barth is UOJ, as expressed by Schleiermacher (Halle). |
My comment:
"Gripped?" "Was Charlotte von Kirschbaum's "gripping experience" that mutual love for theological stimulation?"
Hunsinger says the following:
......Nelly honored Karl's wishes by having Charlotte buried in the Barth family grave. Nelly herself died in 1976. Visitors to the Basel Hörnli cemetery today can see the names of all three together engraved one by one on the same stone......
My comment:
"Were they all buried horizontally? And, if so, in what order? Right to left or left to right? Or, were they all buried vertically? And, if so, - in what order?
As I intimated earlier, this review leaves much to be desired - many questions still linger.....
Ichabod - Thank you for the great read! It has inspired me, enough now, that I feel that I can throw away all my drug store tabloids and save the 3 dollars plus per issue! I'd rather read about some past theological history, instead of all those drug store scandal sheets.
Finally – I feel that I can now appreciate, Barth! I never knew how much effort, Barth put into all his liberal theology! How much he is to be admired! I wonder if he is (now) being commensurately rewarded for all of his endeavors. I suppose that last statement, could have ended with another question mark.....Or, maybe not......
Nathan M. Bickel - emeritus pastor
www.thechristianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org
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| John Howard Yoder headed the Mennonite seminary and taught at Notre Dame. He studied under Barth and was the Mennonite super-star theologian. |
GJ - My dissertation advisor, John Howard Yoder, studied under Barth. Yoder got himself into trouble with a group of Mennonite women, but repented just before he died. Apparently, ELCA Seminex Pastor Bruce Foster and his anonymous Mennonite pals (Jenswold? Lindemann?) cannot read. The story of Yoder's problems and repentance is told in Stanley Hauerwas' Hannah's Child.
