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Karl Barth

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Religious Figure

The Resume

    (May 10, 1886-December 10, 1968)
    Born in Basel, Switzerland
    Twentieth Century theologian
    Writings included his thirteen volume 'Church Dogmatics' and his famous commentary on Saint Paul's 'Letter to the Romans'
    Native of Switzerland who spent much of his professional career in Germany

Why he might be annoying:

    Married with children, he moved his mistress in with his family and would even go on vacation with her, leaving his family behind.
    He concentrated on the minutiae of soteriology (how a person is saved) versus an area more interesting and useful to the everyday Christian, like moral theology.
    The h in his last name is silent.
    Although a fierce critic of the Nazis, he was considerably less so of communism and once said 'I regard anticommunism as a matter of principle an evil even greater than communism itself.'
    To believe in his writings is to believe that he discovered things that the entirety of Christianity had missed during the previous two thousand years.
    He carried his insistence on the doctrine of Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone) to such a degree that he opposed having stained glass windows containing Bible scenes re-installed (they had been removed for safety reasons during WWII) in a church believing that they contrasted with the idea of the Bible as the sole Word of God.
    He believed that the Bible was the only way for people to realize there is a God, ignoring that many cultures through history have developed ideas about God, some very similar to Christianity without ever even hearing about the Bible.

Why he might not be annoying:

    Unlike many theologians, he was a pastor for many years before becoming a college professor of theology.
    He had to leave his teaching post in Germany because he refused to swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler.
    He loved the music of Mozart.
    Pope Pius XII called him the most important theologian since Aquinas.
    Despite his brilliance and popularity, he remained modest.

Credit: tom_jeffords


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 19 Votes: 47.37% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 91.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 150 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 14 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 18 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 21 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 22 Votes: 86.36% Annoying