B - Past Witness Files
- Karl Barth - Herman Bavinck - Horatius Bonar - Richard Bonnke - Anne Bradstreet - Walter Brueggemann
Karl barth(May 10, 1886-December 10, 1968)
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Feb 28, 2023: Gospel Coalition: Should We Cancel Karl Barth, Martin Luther, and Jonathan Edwards?
It was a jarring experience for me a couple years ago to encounter Christiane Tietz’s extraordinary biography of Karl Barth at the same time as I was reading books on how most of the church fathers approached the task of theology.
Barth is perhaps the most influential Christian theologian of the last century, rivaled only by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). And yet as hidden aspects of Barth’s life have come into the light, we now know he lived in an adulterous relationship with his assistant, Charlotte von Kirschbaum, and even arranged his living conditions around this sin, to the detriment of his wife, Nelly. What’s worse, he made twisted and bizarre theological justifications for persisting in unfaithfulness.
It was a jarring experience for me a couple years ago to encounter Christiane Tietz’s extraordinary biography of Karl Barth at the same time as I was reading books on how most of the church fathers approached the task of theology.
Barth is perhaps the most influential Christian theologian of the last century, rivaled only by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). And yet as hidden aspects of Barth’s life have come into the light, we now know he lived in an adulterous relationship with his assistant, Charlotte von Kirschbaum, and even arranged his living conditions around this sin, to the detriment of his wife, Nelly. What’s worse, he made twisted and bizarre theological justifications for persisting in unfaithfulness.
Feb 2, 2023: Gospel Coalition: What Are Theologians For? The Case of Karl Barth’s Adultery
Most theologians and historians have engaged with Barth’s work without having to address the question of his relationship with his assistant, Charlotte von Kirschbaum, for the simple reason that no one could confirm whether their relationship was anything more than professional. With the recent discovery of Barth’s private correspondence with Kirschbaum, the ongoing romantic affair has become incontrovertible.
Most theologians and historians have engaged with Barth’s work without having to address the question of his relationship with his assistant, Charlotte von Kirschbaum, for the simple reason that no one could confirm whether their relationship was anything more than professional. With the recent discovery of Barth’s private correspondence with Kirschbaum, the ongoing romantic affair has become incontrovertible.
April 20, 1962: Barth was featured on the cover of the of Time magazine, an indication that his influence had reached out of academic and ecclesiastical circles and into mainstream American religious culture.
May 10, 1886: Karl Barth was born in Basel, Switzerland.
Herman Bavinck (1854-1921)
“Scripture speaks in a very human way about the essence of God, but it never transfers the sexual differentiation to him; God is never portrayed or presented as being feminine…God is a Father who takes pity on his children, but he also comforts like a mother comforts her son."
- Herman Bavinck
- Herman Bavinck
"God is a unique substance, distinct from the universe, immaterial, imperceptible to the human senses, without composition or extension."
-Herman Bavinck, 𝘙𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘋𝘰𝘨𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴, II:185
-Herman Bavinck, 𝘙𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘋𝘰𝘨𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴, II:185
Jan 12, 2023: Christian Post: Christian prof faces backlash on Twitter for sharing theologian's quote saying God is not 'feminine'
What happens when you tweet in 2023 that God is not “feminine”?
Denny Burk, a professor of Biblical Studies at Boyce College, the undergraduate school of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, found out firsthand after he shared a few quotes from the book The Christian Family, written by Dutch Calvinist theologian Herman Bavinck.
What happens when you tweet in 2023 that God is not “feminine”?
Denny Burk, a professor of Biblical Studies at Boyce College, the undergraduate school of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, found out firsthand after he shared a few quotes from the book The Christian Family, written by Dutch Calvinist theologian Herman Bavinck.
July 29, 2021: Gospel Coalition: Herman Bavinck: 100 Years On
One hundred years ago today, in the early hours of the morning, the great neo-Calvinist theologian Herman Bavinck (1854–1921) died. A century on, his work is undergoing a remarkable renewal of interest across the church and the academy, and his influence extends far beyond his Dutch Reformed starting point.
Sept 24, 2015: Crossway: Herman Bavinck: The Man and the Mind
To the extent that Herman Bavinck is known among English-speaking, theologically aware people, he is known as a thinker and as the author of his four-volume Reformed Dogmatics. Now, no one can read the Reformed Dogmatics and fail to learn some important personal things about Bavinck the theologian.
One hundred years ago today, in the early hours of the morning, the great neo-Calvinist theologian Herman Bavinck (1854–1921) died. A century on, his work is undergoing a remarkable renewal of interest across the church and the academy, and his influence extends far beyond his Dutch Reformed starting point.
Sept 24, 2015: Crossway: Herman Bavinck: The Man and the Mind
To the extent that Herman Bavinck is known among English-speaking, theologically aware people, he is known as a thinker and as the author of his four-volume Reformed Dogmatics. Now, no one can read the Reformed Dogmatics and fail to learn some important personal things about Bavinck the theologian.
horatius bonar
(19 December 1808 – 31 July 1889)
Excerpt from Horatius Bonar (The Jew):
Let us speak reverently of the Jew. Let us not misjudge him by present appearances. He is not what he once was, nor what he yet shall be.
Let us speak reverently of the Jew. We have much cause to do so. What, though all Christendom, both of the East and West, has for nearly eighteen centuries treated him as the offscouring of the race? What though Mohammad has taught his followers to revile and persecute the sons of Abraham? . . .
Nay, what though he [the Jew] may have a grasping hand, and a soul shut up against the world,--a world that has done nothing but wrong and revile him? What though he may inherit the crookedness of his father Jacob, instead of the nobility of Abraham, or the simply gentleness of Isaac?
Still let us speak reverently of the Jew,--if not for what he is, at least for what he was, and what he shall be, when the Redeemer shall come to Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob [Isa. 59:20; see. Rom. 11:26].
In him we see the development of God's great purpose as to the woman's seed, the representative of a long line of kings and prophets, the kinsmen of Him who is the Word made flesh. It was a Jew who sat on one of the most exalted thrones on earth; it is a Jew who sits upon the throne of heaven. It was a Jew who wrought such miracles once on our earth, who spoke such gracious words. It was a Jew who said, "Come unto me and I will give you rest;" and a Jew who said, "Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me." It was Jewish blood that was shed on Calvary; it was a Jew who bore our sins in His own body on the tree. It was a Jew who died, and was buried, and rose again. It is a Jew who liveth to intercede for us, who is to come in glory and majesty as earthly judge and monarch. It is a Jew who is our Prophet, our Priest, our King.
Let us, then, speak reverently of the Jew, whatever his present degradation may be. Just as we tread reverently the level platform of Moriah, where once stood the holy house where Jehovah was worshipped; so let us tread the ground where where they dwell whose are the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and of whom, concerning the flesh, Christ came. That temple hill is not what it was. The beautiful house is gone, and not one stone is left upon another. The
seventeen sieges of Jerusalem, like so many storms rolling the waves of every sea over it, have left few memorials of the old magnificence. The Mosque of the Moslems covers the spot of the altar of burnt-offering; the foot of the Moslem defiles the sacred courts . . . But still the ground is felt to be sacred; the bare rock on which you tread is not common rock; the massive stones built here and there into the wall are witnesses of other days; and the whole scene gathers round it such associations as, in spite of the rubbish, and desolation, and ruin, and pollution, fill you irresistibly with awe . . .
So it is with the Jew,—I mean the whole Jewish nation. There are indelible memories connected with them, which will ever, to anyone who believes in the Bible, prevent them from being contemned; nay, will cast around them a nobility and a dignity which no other nation has possessed or can attain to. To Him in whose purposes they occupy so large a space, they are still “beloved for their fathers’ sake” [Rom. 11:28]. Of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever.
Let us speak reverently of the Jew. Let us not misjudge him by present appearances. He is not what he once was, nor what he yet shall be.
Let us speak reverently of the Jew. We have much cause to do so. What, though all Christendom, both of the East and West, has for nearly eighteen centuries treated him as the offscouring of the race? What though Mohammad has taught his followers to revile and persecute the sons of Abraham? . . .
Nay, what though he [the Jew] may have a grasping hand, and a soul shut up against the world,--a world that has done nothing but wrong and revile him? What though he may inherit the crookedness of his father Jacob, instead of the nobility of Abraham, or the simply gentleness of Isaac?
Still let us speak reverently of the Jew,--if not for what he is, at least for what he was, and what he shall be, when the Redeemer shall come to Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob [Isa. 59:20; see. Rom. 11:26].
In him we see the development of God's great purpose as to the woman's seed, the representative of a long line of kings and prophets, the kinsmen of Him who is the Word made flesh. It was a Jew who sat on one of the most exalted thrones on earth; it is a Jew who sits upon the throne of heaven. It was a Jew who wrought such miracles once on our earth, who spoke such gracious words. It was a Jew who said, "Come unto me and I will give you rest;" and a Jew who said, "Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me." It was Jewish blood that was shed on Calvary; it was a Jew who bore our sins in His own body on the tree. It was a Jew who died, and was buried, and rose again. It is a Jew who liveth to intercede for us, who is to come in glory and majesty as earthly judge and monarch. It is a Jew who is our Prophet, our Priest, our King.
Let us, then, speak reverently of the Jew, whatever his present degradation may be. Just as we tread reverently the level platform of Moriah, where once stood the holy house where Jehovah was worshipped; so let us tread the ground where where they dwell whose are the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and of whom, concerning the flesh, Christ came. That temple hill is not what it was. The beautiful house is gone, and not one stone is left upon another. The
seventeen sieges of Jerusalem, like so many storms rolling the waves of every sea over it, have left few memorials of the old magnificence. The Mosque of the Moslems covers the spot of the altar of burnt-offering; the foot of the Moslem defiles the sacred courts . . . But still the ground is felt to be sacred; the bare rock on which you tread is not common rock; the massive stones built here and there into the wall are witnesses of other days; and the whole scene gathers round it such associations as, in spite of the rubbish, and desolation, and ruin, and pollution, fill you irresistibly with awe . . .
So it is with the Jew,—I mean the whole Jewish nation. There are indelible memories connected with them, which will ever, to anyone who believes in the Bible, prevent them from being contemned; nay, will cast around them a nobility and a dignity which no other nation has possessed or can attain to. To Him in whose purposes they occupy so large a space, they are still “beloved for their fathers’ sake” [Rom. 11:28]. Of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever.
richard bonnke (April 19, 1940 – December 7, 2019)
Reinhard Willi Gottfried Bonnke is a German charismatic Christian evangelist, principally known for his gospel missions throughout Africa. Bonnke has been an evangelist and missionary in Africa since 1967
Jan 2, 2015: Charisma: What Reinhard Bonnke Told Thousands of Youth at Onething
Reinhard Bonnke has led 76 million people to the Lord during the course of his 60 years in ministry. The evangelist that has had over one million people in his meetings declared to the over 20,000 conference attendees in Kansas City that "America will be saved."
Jan 2, 2015: Charisma: What Reinhard Bonnke Told Thousands of Youth at Onething
Reinhard Bonnke has led 76 million people to the Lord during the course of his 60 years in ministry. The evangelist that has had over one million people in his meetings declared to the over 20,000 conference attendees in Kansas City that "America will be saved."
anne bradstreet
Feb 4, 2023: Desiring God: The Faith Crisis of Francis Schaeffer
Indeed, redemptive history is sprinkled with great men and women who struggled at some point with deep discouragement and despair. A well-known example is Martin Luther (1483–1546), who had bouts with depression caused, for example, by contracting the bubonic plague in 1527, or, ironically, by the success of the Reformation and his doubts about his ability to guide it forward. He called such bouts anfechtung, “assaults” that threatened his convictions. Another example is Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672), the remarkable Puritan poet, who admitted to her children that she had traversed serious periods of doubt. “Many times hath Satan troubled me concerning the verity of the Scriptures,” she wrote in a letter she left them after she died. But she remained in the faith.
Indeed, redemptive history is sprinkled with great men and women who struggled at some point with deep discouragement and despair. A well-known example is Martin Luther (1483–1546), who had bouts with depression caused, for example, by contracting the bubonic plague in 1527, or, ironically, by the success of the Reformation and his doubts about his ability to guide it forward. He called such bouts anfechtung, “assaults” that threatened his convictions. Another example is Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672), the remarkable Puritan poet, who admitted to her children that she had traversed serious periods of doubt. “Many times hath Satan troubled me concerning the verity of the Scriptures,” she wrote in a letter she left them after she died. But she remained in the faith.
walter brueggemann |
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“Moses knows that prosperity breeds amnesia.” ― Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now 
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Walter Brueggemann (born March 11, 1933) is an American Protestant Old Testament scholar and theologian who is widely considered one of the most influential Old Testament scholars of the last several decades. His work often focuses on the Hebrew prophetic tradition and sociopolitical imagination of the Church. He argues that the Church must provide a counter-narrative to the dominant forces of consumerism, militarism, and nationalism.
“Faith is both the conviction that justice can be accomplished and the refusal to accept injustice.” ― Walter Brueggemann, Interrupting Silence: God's Command to Speak Out 
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