I have had the opportunity to study at some of the leading Evangelical academic institutions in the United States. While most of my professors in these schools have been excellent practitioners of their theological craft, I find their knowledge of the propositional content of Karl Barth's teaching to be insufficient and lacking.
My personal observation that many Evangelical Christians have been led to believe that Karl Barth was unequivocally a heretic and liberal theologian who led many people astray into false doctrine. However, the vast majority of Evangelicals have never read anything from Karl Barth himself. Most Evangelicals I have encountered have never read a book or even an excerpt of Barth's teachings, but merely parrot the widely disseminated and negative views about Barth and his theology they have heard in a piecemeal fashion from others.
Because of the massive impact that Karl Barth has made on Christian theology over the last hundred years, it is of paramount importance in the case of Karl Barth and his body of teaching, that we "examine everything carefully and hold fast to the truth" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
I personally want to encourage my Christian friends to actually study the works of Barth themselves and not merely repeat the negativity about Barth they have heard from others.
I for one have found Barth to be very Christ-centered and Christo-centric at his doctrinal core and agree with Barth about the supernatural transcendence of God. I have come to respect Karl Barth and found him and his theological writings to be essential reading at this juncture of my personal studies.
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