Tag: Karl Barth
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Best of It: Reinhold Niebuhr – Prophet of Christian Realism (Part 1)
[Series Index] Reinhold Niebuhr was premier among American intellectuals in the mid-twentieth century but today is rarely read in seminaries or elsewhere in academia. Critics like Stanley Hauerwas criticize him as a "chaplain to power." His "Christian Realism" is accused of promoting "an un-Christian defeatism, a willingness to compromise with evil, and a repudiation of…
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Theology and Economics: The Clergy and Laity Dualism
I have been writing about the influence of external factors in creating the Gnostic dualism that prevails in the American Church. Yet the problem is not purely a result of outside influences. An internal dualism has plagued the Church since not long after the New Testament era. It is the dualism of clergy and laity.…
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Klaos – The “Clergy People of God” and the Myth of Laity
Where did we get the clergy/laity dichotomy? The word "clergy" comes from the Greek word kleros, which means "lot" or "inheritance." When used figuratively, as in, "we are God's inheritance" or "we share in the inheritance of Christ," it refers without exception to the whole people of God. It never refers to a specially called…
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Trinitarian Call
Two weeks ago, I said I wanted to enter a discussion about calling and vocations in our current environment. This is my first installment. R. Paul Stevens, in his book The Other Six Days, makes a case for a Trinitarian view of call. I haven’t seen this perspective presented elsewhere, but it is core to…
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Clergy, Laity, Calling: Diehl, Barth, Gillespie
“…In the almost thirty of my professional career, my church has never once suggested that there be any type of accounting of my on-the-job ministry to others. My church has never once offered to improve those skills which could make me a better minister, nor has it ever asked if I needed any kind of…
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Humility in Theology and Preaching
Humility in Theology and Preaching "Too many of us do not approach God, theology, or preaching with the humility that is necessary, and that was demonstated to us in the life of Jesus Christ (Phil. 2:5-11). We instead push for perfectionism, and believe with a lack of humility that we have the correct answer for…