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Chad Marshall reviews Mark S. Gignilliat, "Karl Barth and the Fifth Gospel: Barth’s Theological Exegesis of Isaiah" (Ashgate, 2009) . This book is an interesting case study in Barth's theological exegesis, and Marshall's review is very illuminating. Be sure to check it out ! ================================== Follow @WTravisMcMaken

Attentive readers will have noticed that things have been rather quiet around here. There are many reasons for this: for instance, I’ve been trying to get things together to defend my dissertation in December, teaching responsibilities have ballooned as the semester’s end approaches, etc. However, a not insignificant factor has been the Occupy Movement (hereafter referred to as #OWS), which is now in its third month. Considerable percentages of my woefully insufficient discretionary processing power (those slivers of mental capacity not taken up with aforementioned tasks and familial responsibilities) have been committed to staying abreast of the news and analysis concerning #OWS, and racking my brain in discerning how to lend it appropriate support from the theological field. Notice that I have been concerned with thinking about “how” to support #OWS, not “whether” I should support it. Indeed, I had occasion to mention #OWS in a favorable light in a public lecture on October 15th.

Karl Barth, The Knowledge of God and the Service of God According to the Teaching of the Reformation: The Gifford Lectures Delivered in 1937 and 1938 (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2005): 105-6. If faith is the life of the man who faces Christ as the one from Whom alone he receives his salvation, then it is easy to understand that the man who loves in faith, when he is confronted by the faithfulness of God, sees himself convicted of his own unfaithfulness…Such a man will see that he is in no position to have faith in himself, or to ascribe to himself a capacity or power by means of which he himself could somehow bring about his salvation, or co-operate in bringing it about. What proceeds from himself the man who believes can only consider as the sin which is forgiven him . If he were to any extent to rely on himself too, as well as on Jesus Christ, he would to that extent fall back into sin, and deny the completeness of the salvation received through Jesus Christ and thus t

I've spent way too much time this evening trying to get my various social media presences (Google+, Twitter, Facebook, and this blog) synced up - hopefully they now are. This post is an experiment aimed at verifying that very hypothesis... If the hypothesis is confirmed, vastly more interesting posts on sundry theological topics will follow. If the hypothesis is disproved, then another test post will likely follow (unless I throw up my hands in despair and give up). ==================================