*** Barth on Schleiermacher:
“We have to do with a hero, the like of which is but seldom bestowed upon theology. Anyone who has never noticed anything of the splendor this figure radiated and still does―I am almost tempted to say, who has never succumbed to it―may honorably pass on to other and possibly better ways, […]

Can we predict the trajectory of a given community of faith? No. Not perfectly. But the robust original form of Protestant Liberalism continues as an uncanny harbinger of where many communities eventually settle in. I’m not thinking of the wimpy, sissy liberalism I sometimes encountered as a student at Southern Seminary in the mid 1980’s. […]