Karl Barth (1886-1968) was Swiss theologian. Barth was the founder of the neo-orthodox school of theology. He studied at various universities in Germany and became a liberal pastor for 12 years in Switzerland. After seeing first hand the inherent sinfulness of humanity during the First World War he began studying Scripture and theologians like Calvin and Kierkegaard. Eventually he abandoned liberal theology. In his multi-volume Church Dogmatics he detailed his beliefs, which included the ideas that God is transcendent, and that humanity is separated from God due to sin – a condition that can only be resolved when the Holy Spirit reconciles us to God through Christ.. His theology was, in many ways, universalist but was much more Christ-centered than the liberalism that reigned among scholars during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
