To nobody's surprise, U.S. Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr's attack on Swiss Theologian Karl Barth for his speech before the World Council of Churches at Amsterdam (TIME, Nov. 8) got a prompt reply. Barth, Niebuhr had said, was preaching a dangerous doctrine, which, by concentrating on the Kingdom of God, made no provision for the tragic, practical decisions Christian men and Christian nations must make on the earthly plane. Earth's answer, published in the British fortnightly Christian News-Letter under the heading: "A Preliminary Reply to Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr," struck a sharp issue.
Strike in the Dark. Niebuhr, says Barth, reminds him of a player...