Karl Barth Quotes

Quotes about:

• To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world.

  Karl Barth

  Prayer, Hands, Uprising

  150 Copy quote

• I have read many books, but the Bible reads me.

  Karl Barth

  Book

  78 Copy quote

• I take the Bible far too seriously to take it literally.

  Karl Barth

  123 Copy quote

• When we speak of our virtues we are competitors, when we confess our sins we become brothers.

  Karl Barth

  Brother, Speak, Sin

  125 Copy quote

• Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Gratitude evokes grace like the voice and echo. Gratitude follows grace as thunder follows lightning.

  Karl Barth

  Faith, Gratitude, Echoes

  114 Copy quote

• Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is himself the way.

  Karl Barth

  Inspirational, Teacher, Jesus

  143 Copy quote

• Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.

  Karl Barth

  Newspapers, Time Magazine

  Karl Barth, Eberhard Busch (2005). “Gespräche, 1963”

  127 Copy quote

• What happened on that day (of Easter) became, was and remained the centre around which everything else moves. For everything lasts its time, but the love of God - which was at work and was expressed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead - lasts forever. Because this event took place, there is no reason to despair, and even when we read the newspaper with all its confusing and frightening news, there is every reason to hope.

  Karl Barth

  Jesus, Easter, Moving

  Karl Barth (2009). “Insights: Karl Barth's Reflections on the Life of Faith”, p.30, Westminster John Knox Press

  117 Copy quote

• We must read the Bible through the eyes of shipwrecked people for whom everything has gone overboard.

  Karl Barth

  Eye, People, Gone

  120 Copy quote

• Prayer without study would be empty. Study without prayer would be blind.

  Karl Barth

  Prayer, Would Be, Study

  53 Copy quote

• Faith is not an art. Faith is not an achievement. Faith is not a good work of which some may boast while others can excuse themselves with a shrug of the shoulders for not being capable of it. It is a decisive insight of faith itself that all of us are incapable of faith in ourselves, whether we think of its preparation, beginning, continuation, or completion.

  Karl Barth

  Art, Atheist, Thinking

  "A Karl Barth Reader".

  145 Copy quote

• When we are at our wits' end for an answer, then the Holy Spirit can give us an answer. But how can He give us an answer when we are still well supplied with all sorts of answers of our own?

  Karl Barth

  Giving, Answers, Spirit

  100 Copy quote

• No one can be saved - in virtue of what he can do. Everyone can be saved - in virtue of what God can do.

  Karl Barth

  Virtue, Saved, Can Do

  Karl Barth (1967). “Church Dogmatics: The doctrine of God. 2 pts”

  92 Copy quote

• Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.

  Karl Barth

  Inspirational, Thank You, Gratitude

  "Finding the Magnificent in Lower Mundane : Extraordinary Stories About An Ordinary Place". Book by Bob Stromberg, 1994.

  112 Copy quote

• Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so?

  Karl Barth

  Jesus, Jesus Love, Jesus Loves Me

  Karl Barth (1971). “Fragments grave and gay”, Not Avail

  130 Copy quote

• Radically and basically, all sin is simply ingratitude.

  Karl Barth

  Sin, Ingratitude

  Karl Barth (2004). “The Doctrine of Reconciliation: The Subject-Matter and Problems of the Doctrine of of Reco”, p.49, A&C Black

  10 Copy quote

• Grace creates liberated laughter. The grace of God...is beautiful, and it radiates joy and awakens humor.

  Karl Barth

  Beautiful, Laughter, Joy

  110 Copy quote

• The person who knows only his side of the argument knows little of that.

  Karl Barth

  Littles, Sides, Argument

  23 Copy quote

• On the basis of the eternal will of God we have to think of EVERY HUMAN BEING, even the oddest, most villainous or miserable, as one to whom Jesus Christ is Brother and God is Father; and we have to deal with him on this assumption. If the other person knows that already, then we have to strengthen him in the knowledge. If he does no know it yet or no longer knows it, our business is to transmit this knowledge to him.

  Karl Barth

  Brother, Jesus, Father

  81 Copy quote

• Theology is not a private subject for theologians only. Nor is it a private subject for professors. Fortunately, there have always been pastors who have understood more about theology than most professors. Nor is theology a private subject of study for pastors. Fortunately, there have repeatedly been congregation members, and often whole congregations, who have pursued theology energetically while their pastors were theological infants or barbarians. Theology is a matter for the Church.

  Karl Barth

  Church, Matter, Barbarians

  Karl Barth (2005). “God In Action: Theological Addresses”, p.26, Wipf and Stock Publishers

  92 Copy quote

• Men have never been good, they are not good and they never will be good.

  Karl Barth

  Men, Be Good

  11 Copy quote

• Christian worship is the most momentous, most urgent, most glorious action that can take place in human life.

  Karl Barth

  Christian, Action, Worship

  72 Copy quote

• Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.

  Karl Barth

  Happiness, Laughter, Humor

  "The Harper Book of Quotations". Book by Robert I. Fitzhenry, 1993.

  49 Copy quote

• All sin has its being and origin in the fact that man wants to be his own judge. And in wanting to be that, and thinking and acting accordingly, he and his whole world is in conflict with God. It is an unreconciled world, and therefore a suffering world, a world given up to destruction.

  Karl Barth

  Men, Thinking, Judging

  Karl Barth (2004). “Church Dogmatics The Doctrine of Reconciliation, Volume 4, Part 1: The Subject-Matter and Problems of the Doctrine of of Reconciliation”, p.220, A&C Black

  38 Copy quote

• Let us hear what the Bible says and what we as Christians are called to hear together: By grace you have been saved.

  Karl Barth

  Christian, Hard Times, Grace

  32 Copy quote

Page 1 of 5

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin