I would not like my life to result in the founding of a new school. I would like to tell anyone who is prepared to listen that I myself am not a “Barthian.”
Emphasize my name as little as possible. There is only one interesting name, and brining up all the rest only leads to false loyalties, and can only arouse tedious jealously and stubornness among other people And do not accept anything from me without testing it. Measure everything by the Word of God, the sole truth, which is our judge and our best teacher! You will understand me correctly if you allow what I say to lead you to what he says.
A good theologian does not live in a house of ideas, principles, and methods. He walks right through all such buildings and always comes out into the fresh air again. He remains on the way. He has his eyes on the horizon, the high mountains and the infinite sea–and at the same time also has at heart the good and the bad, the fortunate and the unfortunate, Christians and pagans, his fellow-men from East to West, to whom he is allowed to make his modest testimony.
Karl Barth
Eberhard Busch, Karl Barth: His life from letters and autobiographical texts, trans. John Bowden (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975), 417.
