We have before us the fiendishness of business competition and the world war, passion and wrongdoing, antagonism between classes and moral depravity within them, economic tyranny above and the slave spirit below.
To say revelation is to say, 'the Word became flesh...'
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that divine truth is made manifest in the physical world through Christ.
Karl Barth's quote emphasizes the theological concept that the divine Word, or revelation, is not only an abstract idea but is actualized in a tangible form through the Incarnation of Christ. This intertwining of the divine and the human illustrates the fundamental Christian belief that God chose to express Himself in a way that people could understand and relate to, bridging the gap between the divine realm and human experience.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a sermon about the significance of Jesus' life, this quote could be used to illustrate the concept of God revealing Himself to humanity.
More from Karl Barth
All quotes →When we speak of our virtues we are competitors, when we confess our sins we become brothers.
Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life.
That the zeal for God's honor is also a dangerous passion, that the Christian must bring with him the courage to swim against the tide instead of with it... accept a good deal of loneliness, will perhaps be nowhere so clear and palpable as in the church, where he would so much like things to be different. Yet he cannot and he will not refuse to take this risk and pay this price... he belongs where the reformation of the church is underway or will again be underway.
In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians.
Christian worship is the most momentous, most urgent, most glorious action that can take place in human life.
Similar quotes
The whole universe is our home and all residing in it belong to our family... instead of trying to see God in a particular appearance, it is better to see him in everything.
God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority. It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation, as David did before he fell asleep. God hath a work to do; and not to help Him is to oppose Him.
It might be added that corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their ‘personhood’ often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of ‘We the People’ by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.
It does not matter what men say in words, so long as their activities are controlled by settled instincts. The words may ultimately destroy the instincts; but until this has occurred, words do not count.
Nothing can be sadder or more profound than to see a thousand things for the first and last time.
Public speaking is done in the public tongue, the national or tribal language; and the language of our tribe is the men's language. Of course women learn it. We're not dumb. If you can tell Margaret Thatcher from Ronald Reagan, or Indira Gandhi from General Somoza, by anything they say, tell me how. This is a man's world, so it talks a man's language.