Karl Barth on the Christian Life

The Author: Joseph L. Mangina is Assistant Professor of Theology at Wycliffe College, Toronto. He received his M.Div. from Yale Divinity School and his Ph.D. from Yale University and has taught at Connecticut College, Le Moyne College, and Yale University. The author of published essays on Barth’s ecclesiology and ethics, Mangina is writing a book on Barth’s significance for contemporary ecumenical Christianity.

«Joseph L. Mangina has quite simply written the best book we have on Barth’s account of the Christian life. His analysis of the self-involving character of Barth’s theology not only is a wonderful defense of his position but, just as important, helps us better understand Barth’s whole project. The book should be read not only by those seeking a better understanding of Barth but by anyone concerned with the challenge to provide a constructive account of the Christian life.» (Stanley M. Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics, Duke University)«Joseph L. Mangina effectively dismantles the stereotype that Karl Barth stresses the objective givenness of God’s self-disclosure so hard that he leaves no room for talk of personal experience of grace. It turns out that integral to Barth’s theology are imaginative, subtle, and moving portrayals of what Jonathan Edwards called the ‘religious affections’. Mangina’s perceptive case studies also manage to show, rather than tell, just how Barth’s revolutionary ‘theological method’ works in actual practice. This gracefully written book proves that close readings of texts need not be tedious and that rigorous discussion of Barth need be neither boring nor verbose!» (David H. Kelsey, Luther Weigle Professor of Theology, Yale University)