Karl Barth

''Karl Barth'' (May 10, 1886 &ndash; December 10, 1968) (pronounced "bart") was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom some critics held to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas. <ref>['Church Dogmatics' IV.1, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2004)..</ref> Beginning with his experience as a pastor, he rejected his training in the predominant liberal theology typical of 19th-century Protestantism,<ref name=ISR> 'Issues in Science and Religion' (1966), Ian Barbour, Prentice-Hall pages 116-119, 229, 292, 422-25, 456, 459 </ref> especially German. Instead he embarked on a new theological path initially called dialectical theology (due to its stress on the paradoxical nature of divine truth - for instance, God is both grace and judgment)<ref>Donald K. McKim, 'Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms', pp.76-77</ref>, but more accurately called a theology of the Word<ref>See T. F. Torrance. "Karl Barth: An Introduction to His Early Theology" as well as T. F. Torrance. "Karl Barth: Biblical and Evangelical Theologian" </ref>. Critics have referred to Barth as the father of neo-orthodoxy<ref name=ISR/> - a pejorative term emphatically rejected by Barth himself<ref>See Church Dogmatics III/3, xii.</ref>. Barth's theological thought emphasized the sovereignty of God, particularly through his innovative doctrine of election. His theology has been enormously influential throughout Europe and America.