Thomas Merton and Karl Barth died on this day in 1968, Barth in Basel at the age of 82, and Merton in Bangok, Thailand at the age of 53. They couldn’t have been more different, but they both were powerful influences on me. Back on this day in 2009 I wrote a post called “An Appreciation: Thomas Merton and Karl Barth.” To read it go here.
If Merton, the Catholic, found God in contemplation and in nature, Barth, the Protestant, found him elsewhere. Barth’s God was the wholly Other, who breaks into our world through the revelation in Jesus Christ as attested in Scripture. There was no natural theology here, and Barth saw religion itself as a false alternative to faith. He said, “Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is Himself the way.
Two great teachers of the church who will long be remembered.
When I Survey . . . 
And, I would have to agree. A serious problem with “religion” is found in our inadequately “forced finding” of who we “make Jesus out to be” within our limited capabilities in translating Jesus. We put in such dedication to what Scripture truly is saying and too often lose what it is meant to be. It is truly sad how tragically we seek our Creator…looking everywhere but where he is…within us and messaging us throughout all creation. He set every example needed to find our way to a true spiritual relationship with him but we keep tripping over capturing him as we want him to be. S