Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth are often taken to be two of the greatest theologians in the Christian tradition. This book undertakes a systematic comparison of them through the lens of five key topics: (1) the being of God, (2) Trinity, (3) Christology, (4) grace and justification, and (5) covenant and law. Under each of these headings, a Catholic portrait of Aquinas is presented in comparison with a Protestant portrait of Barth, with the theological places of convergence and contrast highlighted. This volume combines a deep commitment to systematic theology with an equally profound commitment to mutual engagement. Understood rightly and well, Aquinas and Barth contribute powerfully to the future of theology and to an ecumenism that takes doctrinal confession seriously while at the same time seeking unity among Christians. Contributors: John R. Bowlin Holly Taylor Coolman Robert W. Jenson Keith L. Johnson Guy Mansini, O.S.B. Amy Marga Bruce L. McCormack Richard Schenk, O.P. Joseph P. Wawrykow Thomas Joseph White, O.P.

The legacies of Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth remain influential for contemporary theologians, who have increasingly put them into conversation on debated questions over analogy and the knowledge of God. However, little explicit dialogue has occurred between their theologies of God. This book offers one of the first extended analyzes of this fundamental issue, asking how each theologian seeks to confess in fact and in thought God's qualitative distinctiveness in relation to creation. Wittman first examines how they understand the correspondence and distinction between God's being and external acts within an overarching concern to avoid idolatry. Second, he analyzes the kind of relation God bears to creation that follows from these respective understandings. Despite many common goals, Aquinas and Barth ultimately differ on the subject matter of theological reason with consequences for their ability to uphold God's distinctiveness consistently. These mutually informative issues offer some important lessons for contemporary theology.

This book argues for substantial and pervasive convergence between Thomas Aquinas and Karl Barth with regards to God’s relation to history and to the Christocentric orientation of that history. In short, it contends that Thomas can affirm what Barth calls "the humanity of God." The argument has great ecumenical potential, finding fundamental agreement between two of the most important figures in the Reformed and Roman Catholic traditions. It also contributes to contemporary theology by demonstrating the fruitfulness of exchanging metaphysical vocabularies for normative. Specifically, it shows how an account of God’s mercy and justice can resolve theological debates most assume require metaphysical speculation.

This book is a work of systematic theology that provides a fresh interpretation of Aquinas on the nature of theology, and uncovers and explores theological affinities between Aquinas and Protestant theologian Karl Barth.

The most comprehensive scholarly survey of Karl Barth’s theology ever published Karl Barth, arguably the most influential theologian of the 20th century, is widely considered one of the greatest thinkers within the history of the Christian tradition. Readers of Karl Barth often find his work both familiar and strange: the questions he considers are the same as those Christian theologians have debated for centuries, but he often addresses these questions in new and surprising ways. The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Karl Barth helps readers understand Barth’s theology and his place in the Christian tradition through a new lens. Covering nearly every topic related to Barth’s life and thought, this work spans two volumes, comprising 66 in-depth chapters written by leading experts in the field. Volume One explores Barth’s dogmatic theology in relation to traditional Christian theology, provides historical timelines of Barth’s life and works, and discusses his significance and influence. Volume Two examines Barth’s relationship to various figures, movements, traditions, religions, and events, while placing his thought in its theological, ecumenical, and historical context. This groundbreaking work: Places Barth into context with major figures in the history of Christian thought, presenting a critical dialogue between them Features contributions from a diverse team of scholars, each of whom are experts in the subject Provides new readers of Barth with an introduction to the most important questions, themes, and ideas in Barth’s work Offers experienced readers fresh insights and interpretations that enrich their scholarship Edited by established scholars with expertise on Barth’s life, his theology, and his significance in Christian tradition An important contribution to the field of Barth scholarship, the Wiley Blackwell Companion to Karl Barth is an indispensable resource for scholars and students interested in the work of Karl Barth, modern theology, or systematic theology.

Karl Barth was, without doubt, one of the most significant religious thinkers of modern times. His radical affirmation of the revealed truth of Christianity changed the course of Christian theology in the twentieth century and is a source of inspiration for countless believers. Pope Pius XII declared that there had been nothing like Karl Barth's later thought since Thomas Aquinas. God Here and Now offers a succinct and accessible overview of that thought. In it, Barth outlines his position on the fundamental tenets of Christian belief, from the decision of faith to the authority of the Bible, and from the interpretation of grace to the significance of Jesus Christ. In this way Barth challenges each and every reader to discover what it means to encounter God, here and now.

God's simplicity and perfection shapes both God's distinctive relation to creation and how theologians properly acknowledge this distinctiveness in thought.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive survey of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant philosophical and theological reception of Thomas Aquinas over the past 750 years.

Examine a collection of Karl Barth’s shorter works, written after the first publication of his Epistle to the Romans, during his time as professor in Göttingen and Münster, in the wake of World War I.

Neither Nature nor Grace operates at the intersection of systematic and philosophical theology, exploring in particular how St. Thomas Aquinas variously uses the latter in service to the clarification and faithful advancement of the former. More specifically, Neither Nature nor Grace explores the overlooked logical difficulties that have followed the late modern debates in ecumenical Christian theology as to whether knowledge of God is available solely through God’s gracious self-revelation (e.g., Jesus Christ and Holy Scripture), or through revelation and the deliverances of natural reason. Van Wart takes the prominent French Dominican Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange as paradigmatic for the case that knowledge of God can be had by both revelation and natural reason. Representing the opposing position, that God can only be known through divine revelation, Van Wart highlights the work of influential Protestant theologian Karl Barth. By placing these two imposing 20th century theologians in conversation, and by providing a careful theo-philosophical analysis of the logical mechanics of each thinker’s respective arguments, Van Wart shows how both inadvertently overreach their self-professed epistemological bounds and just so run into significant problems maintaining the coherence of their relative theological positions. That is, against their expressed intentions to the contrary, both thinkers unwittingly evacuate the divine essence of the mystery Christian tradition has always previously claimed it to have, effectively reducing the being of God to mere creaturely being writ large. As a contrasting corrective to this problem, Van Wart proffers a constructive grammatical reading of Aquinas’s measured account of the crucial but often overlooked logical differences between what can be said of the divine, on the one hand, versus what can be known of God, on the other. While many recent works have attempted to solve the ongoing arguments which Garrigou-Lagrange and Barth epitomize regarding the epistemic use of God’s effects, Van Wart’s contribution constructively pushes the conversation to a different level in showing how Aquinas’s grammar of God provides a salutary means of dissolving and moving beyond these contentious debates altogether.