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Swiss pastor, professor, social-activist and author Karl Barth (rhymes with heart) isn’t perhaps a household name today, even if he’s considered by many the most influential Christian theologian of the 20th century. As Influence often walks hand in hand with conflict, Barth is no stranger to controversy. In his theology and perhaps even more so in his life, he represents paradox: the theologian drafting his own judgement. Barth knows himself to be without excuse, and the simultaneity of this tension has inspired my body of recent paintings. The varied depictions of Barth, large and small, light and dark, merry and morose, serve as reflections of an individual held by grace on a tight-wire stretched between his (and our) status as both child and enemy of God.
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‘‘As ministers we ought to speak of God. We are human, however, and so cannot speak of God. We ought therefore to recognize both our obligation and our inability and by that very recognition to give God the glory. This is our perplexity.’’ |