Karl Barth (Preface to the 2nd edition of The Epistle to the Romans)
If I have a system,
it is limited to a recognition of what
Kierkegaard called the "infinite
qualitative distinction" between
Time and Eternity,
AND to my regarding this as
possessing negative as well as
positive significance: God is in
heaven, and thou art on earth. . .
When I am faced by such a document
as the Epistle of Paul to the Romans,
I embark on its interpretation on the
assumption that he is confronted with
the same unmistakable & unmeasurable
significant of that relation as
I myself am confronted with,
and that it is this situation which
moulds his thought & its expression.
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