We
have come here to praise the Lord. Why do we praise the Lord? "Lord my
God, You are very great." God is great in power. His power can impress
us, but it will not save us until we are touched by a special power -
the power of His love. God is great in holiness. His holiness (Isaiah
6:3) shows us our sin (Isaiah 6:5). It's His love that brings us
salvation (Isaiah 6:7). When we see the greatness of His love, we can
truly say, "Praise the Lord."
Two quite different responses to theological liberalism are represented in the theologies of Karl Barth and Paul Tillich.
In his protest against theological liberalism, Barth seeks to re-emphasize the lost emphases on man the sinner and God the Judge. In his article, “Liberal Protestantism, Liberal Theology, Liberalism” in A. Richardson (editor), A Dictionary of Christian Theology, (London, 1969), J. Richmond points out that Barth “has stressed the centrality and the kerygmatic character of the biblical writings, the radical discontinuity between God and human nature, and has made much of the concepts of crisis, judgment and grace” (p. 193).
In his attempt to overcome the defects of theological liberalism, Tillich advocates a symbolic reinterpretation of the Christian message. Richmond maintains that the theology of Tillich (and Bultmann) is “partly continuous with the liberal tradition” (p. 193). together with Bultmann, Tillich has “tried to avoid the excesses into which the older l…