What a difference a word makes. While the first English editions of Karl Barth's magnum opus, Church Dogmatics
, rendered the 17th chapter "The Revelation of God as the Abolition of Religion," Green, an emeritus professor of religion at Connecticut College, presents that chapter here in book form as the "sublimation" of religion. Barth, he says, did not reject religion outright, as has sometimes been supposed, but merely subordinated it to revelation. ("Not a few theologically educated English speakers hold the utterly erroneous belief that Karl Barth does not think that Christianity is a religion at all!" he grumbles.) In this edition, Green corrects errors and restores phrases and italicized emphases that were omitted when the Dogmatics
was translated from German to English. He provides a translator's note and an extensive introduction to Barth's life and work. While the audience for such a specialized work is limited, those scholars who may have once dismissed Barth would do well to pay the book some attention. (Jan.)
