In this well-researched history of the rise, development, and near-demise of Karl Barth's theology, Gary Dorrien carefully analyzes the making of the Barthian revolution and the reasons behind its simultaneously dominating and marginal character. Dorrien discusses Barth's relationship to his predecessors and his contemporaries, as well as to modern theologians. He argues that Barth's approach to theology was deeply indebted to his liberal past and was not essentially a form of 'neoorthodox' positivism.