Two 20th Century Powerhouses: Karl Barth & Thomas Merton

Today the Church remembers two powerhouses: Karl Barth, one of the foremost theologians of the 20^th Century, and Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk and a prolific writer.

KARL BARTH: 

 

Barth was born in Switzerland on 10 May 1886 and he died on this day in 1968.  He was a Reformed pastor and theologian, and he is referred to as “the Father of Neo-Orthodoxy.” 

Just as there is a pre-Einsteinian science and a post-Einsteinian science, so there is a pre-Barthian and post-Barthian theology; the contribution of Barth to theology is, like that of Einstein to science because it marks one of the great eras of advance in the whole history of the subject.

Barth believed that Christian theology should derive its entire thinking about God, man, sin, ethics, and society from what can actually be seen in Jesus Christ as witnessed by the Old and New Testaments rather than from sources independent of this revelation.

When he made his one visit to the U.S. in 1962, he was asked how he would summarize the essence of the millions of words he had published, he answered, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Let us pray:  Almighty God, source of justice beyond human knowledge: We thank you for inspiring Karl Barth to resist tyranny and exalt your saving grace, without which we cannot apprehend your will. Teach us, like him, to live by faith, and even in chaotic and perilous times to perceive the light of your eternal glory, Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, throughout all ages. Amen.

 

THOMAS MERTON:

 

He was born on 31 January 1915 in France to American parents, and he died on the same day that Barth did. 

Merton wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews, including his best-selling autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948). 

After a rambunctious youth and adolescence, Merton converted to Roman Catholicism while he was at Columbia University.  On this day in 1941, Thomas Merton entered The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, in Kentucky and he became a Trappist monk.

At the core of Merton’s spiritual writings is the search for the true self, the self that is not to be experienced alone but to be lived in community. He writes often about the importance of relationships focusing on 4, the relationship with self, God, other people, and all of creation. By nurturing our relationships we deepen our connections to God and our selves.

Let us pray: Gracious God, you called your monk Thomas Merton to proclaim your justice out of silence, and moved him in his contemplative writings to perceive and value Christ at work in the faiths of others: Keep us, like him, steadfast in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

CALENDAR REMINDERS

Next Sunday at 2 p.m., Bishop Doyle will dedicate the new Robert L. and Ann Moody Activity Center at Trinity Episcopal School.

Adult Christian Education on Sundays at 11 am during Advent: The Scripture behind Handel’s Messiah.

Christmas Eve Eucharist, Rite II on 24 December at 4 pm.

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

Your servant in Christ,

The Rev. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church
Galveston, Texas 77550