Gerald McKenny on Barth

I haven't much time to say anything substantial on this (I will do in coming days) but I have recently been reading and re-reading this excellent new book on Barth's moral theology. McKenny is Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at the University of Notre Dame. The book is thoroughly engaging and hugely accessible for those wanting to get a grip on the contraversial area of Barth's ethics, and the point he advances - that the analogy of grace is central to Barth's theological ethic - is an intesresting one. What I particularly enjoyed is that McKenny is not an avowed Barthian, but an interested reader who is in some places indebted to Barth and in others not at all. If your library has a copy then I'd say find a quiet afternoon and read it, even if you're not interested in Barth's ethics you will find the engagement between McKenny's keenly trained ethics mind and Barth's ethics-in-the-genre-of-dogmatics hugely rewarding.

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David Clough on Barth

For those who are interested, here is an interview with Professor David Clough from earlier this year on the subject of Barth's theological development. It has recently made its way online...alas, the interviewer (me!) has been edited out. The interview was for a new DVD Interactive Multimedia Timeline created by R ev. Dr Tim Hull at St John's College Nottingham. Several high quality scholars agreed to be interviewed, including Dr Karen Kilby, Dr Ben Fulford, Professor Antony Thiselton, Professor David Fergusson, and several others forthcoming. David Clough is Professor of Theological Ethics at Chester University, UK, and wrote his doctoral thesis on the interpretation of Barth's ethics. It was published in 2005 as, Ethics in Crisis: Interpreting Barth's Ethics (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005).

Barth on Scripture: George Hunsinger et al.

Finding time for anything other than poor quality posting has been a problem recently: parish ministry rightly has first place, and then there's the small matter of a PhD... BUT, I have had time for some reviewing, and have recently finished a review of George Hunsinger (ed), Thy Word is Truth: Barth on Scripture (Grand Rapids: Eedrmans, 2012). It is a really interesting book, and worthy of reading...in fact read my review in Theology when (if?) it is published later this year. For now, though, here's a lovely quote from hunsinger's introductory chapter as he explains something of the significance of dialectical interpretation for Barth's approach to scripture: The cross and resurrection of Christ, as proclaimed by Paul, were for Barth the paradigmatic case. They were what finally made necessry the procedure of dialectic interpretation. What held Christ's cross and resurrection together, he suggested, was not a concept but a name, not a system but a narrative

Theology and globalization...call for papers

A new open-access journal, Soma, is calling for papers on the subject of theology and globalization for its first edition in 2011. Go here for details. Established scholars and previously unpublished scholars are eligible to submit...so go have a look

Michael J. Leyden

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