5 - Revelation against Religion

Summary

Barth holds that religion cannot explain revelation. This is true, insofar as religious studies is descriptive and pluralistic.

Barth thinks that revelation can explain religion, but on the contrary, each religion must be explained in its own terms, not in terms of one preferred revelation.

Sympathetic understanding of other religions is an advance in faith, not lack of faith.

Faith is commitment to the objectively uncertain.

To see Jesus as selflessly loving, not a stern judge, though attractive, is nevertheless a selective interpretation of Scripture.

Personal experience, attention to tradition, and to reason, are necessary in theology, but lead to diverse and fallible beliefs.