The World Of Christ And the World Of Culture: Sacred And Secular Through The Theology Of Karl Barth by Paul Louis Metzger (Assistant Professor of Christian Theology and Theology of Culture, Multnomah Biblical Seminary, Portland, Oregon) is a close and illuminating study of Karl Barth's revolutionary theological ideals. From exploring the sacred in the creative word to "theological politics" to the demise of corpus christianum, The World of Christ and the World of Culture balances centuries of tradition and faith with modern changes in human way of life looking for a road that unifies faith in God with adaptations to the onward march of Time. The World Of Christ And The World Of Culture is a most welcome addition to Christian Theological Studies reading lists and library collections.

Amazing! This book shows how Orthodox Christology can provide a framework for engagement of the sacred and secular spheres which is both constructive and critical. Metzger shows how Barth's understanding of the relation of Christ's divine and human natures establishes the basis for a theology of culture.

Barth's paradigm, it is argued, provides a framework in which culture is allowed to truly be itself as secular, in distinct though inseparable relation to Christ. In Barth's day, his paradigm spoke against both the divinization of culture witnessed in Nazi Germany, and the secularization of culture in Soviet socialism, yet remained constructive calling for the humanization of culture to be truly secular in its proper sphere. Barth's appreciation of Mozart is shown not to be an anomaly in his theology as a whole, but rather the product of his Christological paradigm.

Today, the implications of this paradigm loom large for what Gunton refers to in the foreword as the often "distorted religious culture" of America and the West attempting to come to terms with Islam and the global world. I myself have often wrestled with the schizophrenic waffling between divinization and secularization of culture so evident here in America. This book has helped me set a framework in which Christology speaks both critically and constructively to both church and culture.

Metzger shows how Barth's paradigm establishes the framework for a theology of culture crucially relevant to our modern day, in which Christology calls culture to truly be itself. I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to see Christology taken 'off the shelf' and into the world-at-large.

This is an amazing book! It is an elegant reevaluation of whatis important in the Bible. Bultmann is an excellent New Testamentscholar, and he puts his knowledge to good use in this book. His use of existential philosophy is also very interesting. He really strips away a lot of the trappings of the Bible to get to the heart of its message. He is also a very good writer, and everything he says is very clearly conveyed. If you have any interest in Christian philosophy, I highly recommend this book.

Karl Jaspers has undertaken an interesting study in the little book. He looks at the teachings of four men who have had the most far-reaching impact on our world. He claims that the greatness of their influence is measured in centuries as well as globally. The four great men he chose for this book are, as the title suggests, Socrates, Buddha, Confucius and Jesus. He entertained the thought of including Mohammed but chose not to. He explains that Mohammed "might be comparable in historical importance but not in individual depth (p. 87)." One other interesting insight comes from Jaspers on the same page. We have no writings from any of the four themselves - what we do have comes from their disciples after they died.

So much for the interesting, now for the question of trustworthiness.

Jaspers examined the biblical accounts of Jesus through the lens of higher criticism. In other words, Jaspers did not deal with the biblical text itself when he studied Jesus, he dealt with the text after sifting through what others thought was truly the teaching of Jesus. The reason this poses a problem is important to all readers, not merely to Christians. If he did not take the teachings of Jesus (as recorded by his disciples) at face value, did he take the teachings of Socrates, Buddha and Confucius (as recorded by their disciples) at face value? Is the reader really getting Socrates, Buddha, Confucius and Jesus, or is the reader getting Karl Jaspers? Knowing the aspects of Jesus' teachings that have been ignored in this study, and their importance to understanding Jesus' view of himself and the world around him, makes me wonder what we may have lost, in this study, from the other three great men included here.

This book is a very interesting idea. But, is it trustworthy scholarship? Not in my humble opinion. However, those who do not wish to sift through the original writings will inevitably want to read Jasper's abridgement of those writings. This may be to the readers' benefit, or to their detriment.

Jaspers has this rare ability to write both insightfully and very, very clearly on complex issues. Given the outstanding subject matter, this book had to be great !

For those who like Jasper's style I recommend also his account of Nietzsche's philosophy and life. It is a pure pleasure to read whether you agree with Nietzsche or not.

Aside from being an intelligently written book, I gave this book 5 stars because it made a big impression on me. Jaspers explanation of Confucius made the strength of Confucious's teaching clear. Now I'm very interested in Confucious and am reading more books about him. In that respect, this slim volume changed my life: It brought Confucious to life. What's more, by explaining Confucius's feelings about Taoism, this slim book did more to explain classic Taoism than the 2 books on the Tao I've already read.

Be aware that this book is due to the editing of Hannah Arendt. This means that Jaspers did not put this book out and say "Ta Da, the 4 Greatest!" No, Jaspers wrote a 2 volume book on the great philosophers due to his post War interest in increasing tolerance among men (per the Encyclopedia Britanica). This book does not appear to have any noticable Existentialist influence.

Finally, if you are a fundamentalist Christian, be warned that it is clear from his writing that Jaspers does not believe that Jesus is the Son of God, nor does he believe the Bible is free of error. He is not disrespectful of Jesus nor of Christianity, but do not think that because Jesus is in this book that the book is strongly pro-Jesus.

This book does not just list historical events, but talks about what the Romans believed, their economy, their religion, what they ate, and more. It is a good introductions to the Romans.