Dialectical Theology. A name given to the genre of theology expounded by Karl Barth and his followers, which repudiated the "liberal" tradition in Protestant theology (e.g., as expressed by Schleiermacher) and adopted a method designed to restore a dogmatic theology of the Calvinist type. This type of theology seems to have been so called because, in contrast to the traditional method in dogmatic theology, which treats God as an object, and the mystical method, which uses the via negativa, the Barthian way purports to transcend both such ways and to keep God, the focus of faith, free from all formulation and to accept and study him as revealed in the Scriptures. The theological attraction of Barth's stance for those who came strongly under its influence seems to have lain chiefly in its emphasis on the Otherness of God, i.e., his transcendence over all else, and its resistance to all pantheistic and panentheistic tendencies. In the English-speaking world, its influence was particularly notable in the Scottish Kirk in the 1940s. See Barth, Karl.

Geddes MacGregor, Dictionary of Religion and Philosophy, New York: Paragon House, 1989