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A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with the Revd Dr Stephen Wigley.

Good morning. One of my theological heroes is the great Reformed theologian Karl Barth who died some 46 years ago today. In his early years he was a combative figure challenging the liberal theology which he believed had led the Church astray and unable to face the crisis engulfing Europe in World War 1. More recently his reputation has been challenged by the revelation that his colleague Charlotte von Kirschbaum was not just his assistant but also his long-term partner. But when the rise of Nazism led to a second crisis across Europe, it was Barth’s insistence that theology should listen to the Word of God and not to men speaking in a loud voice that enabled him to offer leadership to those in the Church resisting Hitler. For this he was thrown out of Germany and back to Basel in his native Switzerland.

There he found a friendship with a young Catholic scholar Hans Urs von Balthasar which would profoundly affect both their theological works. This renewed ecumenical engagement would in turn lead Barth to play a significant role in the newly formed World Council of Churches, through which he offered a fresh vision of how the Church might recover its mission with a clearer focus on Christ. Barth appears listed among the saints in the Calendar of the Episcopal Church of America to be remembered as a ‘Pastor and theologian’. T here is something deeply appropriate in the reminder he offers as we reflect on the day’s news, that the Christian preacher must always ‘hold the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in another’.

Almighty God,
We thank you for the life and work of Karl Barth, and his reminding us of that simple but profound truth that goes to the heart of Christian faith, that ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, because the Bible tells me so.
Amen.