Julie Powell wrote about Julia Child as she cooked her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking on The Julie/Julia Project blog. The effort got her a book and movie deal. I imagined writing about Karl Barth in a similar fashion as I began reading his major works.
Karl Barth is probably the most important theologian since John Calvin, Luther, Thomas Aquinas, and Augustine. His Church Dogmatics is a massive thirteen volumes. He quotes the Bible and early Church Fathers extensively and reviews much of the history of Christian theology.
Maybe things will change as I get farther along, but after 253 pages, I have written exactly one thing inspired by what I am reading – Was Jesus Reluctant to Help? (July 25, 2010). And Brian McLaren’s The Secret Message of Jesus inspired that piece also.
Even though the reading is not inspiring me to write much, I think the effort is worthwhile and expect to keep going. You can get through Church Dogmatics in five years by reading five pages per day. At this rate, I will finish the last volume in 2015.
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