DESCRIPTION
This book clearly shows how Karl Barth still remains a significant voice in the contemporary theological conversation. Hans Mikkelsen sets out to demonstrate the ways in which Barth reinterprets traditional Christianity. In this spirit of dialogue, Mikkelsen reads Barth in conjunction with several other thinkers and theologians, including Schleiermacher, Hegel, Brunner, Buber, Pannenberg, Girard, and Frei.
Reconciled Humanity is a refreshing treatment of Barth, full of complex, intricate, and highly nuanced arguments. Mikkelsen here establishes a connection between tradition and modernity in systematic theology, concerning himself not only with what Barth said but also with how one can -- and should -- use Barth's thought in a constructive way today.
REVIEWS
George Pattison
— University of Oxford
"Hans Vium Mikkelsen's passionate reading of Barth serves, as he says, 'to show how vital a dialogue partner Barth is for contemporary theology.' But this seemingly straightforward proposal leads to a significant widening of conventional approaches to the author of the Church Dogmatics. Whilst always staying close to Barth's text, Mikkelsen shows how that same text can be opened up for fruitful dialogue with, amongst others, Buber, Hegel, and Girard. Barth is by no means watered down in this process, but he is certainly taken down from the pedestal on which both supporters and detractors are liable to place him and drawn into the ongoing and concrete work of theological enquiry. Here he takes his place as a thinker who has much to say — but not everything, and whose insights are to be tested, interpreted, and put to work like those of any other contributor to theological debate. Thus, Mikkelsen's book will encourage students who might be put off by Barth's apparent dogmatic certitude to take a freer and more open approach to what remains one of the twentieth century's defining contributions to Christian thought."
William Stacy Johnson
— Princeton Theological Seminary
"An important contribution to contemporary theology by one of Europe's finest young theologians. Hans Vium Mikkelsen's dynamic rereading of Barth looks beyond the Swiss giant, and the enduring questions he raised, to discover new answers for a new generation."