> Barth rejects this out of hand, saying that there is no path from man to God, and that the only way man can come to know God is for God to reveal Himself to man. Furthermore, God's revelation is by his own choosing, and man cannot ignore His message.
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> Barth's school, however, is dialectical theology. The dialectic assumes, to put it *extremely* briefly, that for every statement, the opposite is also true. Therefore, by revealing Himself to us. God masks Himself from our sight. This dialectic trick allows Barth's theology to cope brilliantly with the idea of God revealing himself through the person of Jesus Christ, while still maintaining the mysery and the unknowability of God. According to Barth, in this mystery can be found the true knowledge.
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> That's a fairly brief summary; if you want more details, I'll be glad to drag this out even longer! :-}

You've sketched out a number of tantalizing points... More details are desired and appreciated. :-) I have some thoughts on what you've already said, but they're incomplete. Dialectics, Liberal Theology, Epistemology and other such metaphysical disciplines are all areas where I'm cheerfully ignorant, so it's a pleasure to discuss such things with people who are currently studying them.

Wolf "He Who is wholly unknowable, yet comes to us made small and weak; He Who demands total love and obedience, yet showers mercy on all" spirit