Actuality and Provisionality: Eternity and Election in the Theology of Karl Barth

John Colwell’s scholarship provides him with the basis for some sharp observations about the more sweeping criticisms of Barth, and shows that this supposedly ‘extreme’ theologian produces a far more nuanced and subtle account of such topics as the relations of incarnation and atonement, creation and redemption, grace and freedom, than do those who have read and moved rapidly on to provide their own one-sided ‘improvements’. Moltmann and Pannenberg, in particular, come in for interesting and pointed questioning. Here is not, however, an uncritical celebration of Barth… The publication of this work is to be much welcomed as a valuable contribution to Barth scholarship. – Colin E. Gunton From the Foreword