The Sound of True Words: How Karl Barth and Tolkien Taught Us to Listen Beyond the Surface

True words make music. False ones don’t.

Karl Barth, a prominent Swiss Reformed theologian, often talked about his experiences with miners in Safenwil, Switzerland, where he served as a pastor. He quickly realized that the kind of theology he was taught in the seminary made no sense to these people.

“Those who surrounded me in Safenwil, those factory workers and peasants, were the people who, …