We have now received sample pages of the new edition of the Church Dogmatics, due to be published by the end of this year. The text will be presented in a new layout and a bigger format in 31 paperback volumes. For the first time this edition will include translations of all Latin and Greek texts, presented alongside the original texts. The translations have been provided by a team of scholars from the Barth Centre at Princeton Theological Seminary. I think you will agree that this is an exciting addition to the classic text with lots of new content.
Please do have a look and let us know what you think!
PS Please note that the page numbers in square brackets refer to the classic edition of the Church Dogmatics. They will be removed at a later stage.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to keep the old page numbers in the brackets (maybe in small print) so as to maintain referential continuity?
Posted by: Ben George | June 25, 2008 at 07:20 PM
Looks great! And I agree with the comment above: I reckon you should keep the old page numbers in brackets; otherwise anyone reading pre-2008 Barth scholarship would find it hard to locate references.
Posted by: Ben Myers | June 26, 2008 at 01:24 AM
Excellent! The page layout is sharp and clear. As one who works at the Barth Center, I am very happy to see the translations included.
And I also concur with the comments above. It would be very unwise to remove the old page numbers. The amount of English scholarship relying on the older edition is just huge!
Posted by: David W. Congdon | June 26, 2008 at 02:22 AM
Many thanks for all your comments. This is very helpful. To make this more user friendly: Do you think the page numbers are enough - or should we also include the volume of the old edition?
Posted by: Tom | June 26, 2008 at 12:32 PM
Tom, I agree that the old edition page numbers need to stay. Reference to the part-volume of the old edition can be made on the title page or on one of the frontage pages; it need not be repeated throughout.
Posted by: WTM | June 26, 2008 at 01:17 PM
Just one additional thought: I know it's much too late for this, but it seems a shame that the footnotes all had to be prefixed with "EN". Since Barth himself doesn't use footnotes, the translation notes could have just been numbers. (But then of course you would have had to change the Bromiley edition's system of using superscription for biblical references — too much editorial fiddling, I guess!)
Posted by: Ben Myers | June 27, 2008 at 12:27 AM
I also agree that you should definitely keep the page numbers in brackets in the final version. It would be next to impossible to actually USE this new edition otherwise, because you wouldn't be able to look up citations quoted in secondary literature.
The brackets are unobtrusive as they stand now, and it makes it a very helpful contribution.
Posted by: Clay Jackson | June 27, 2008 at 01:07 AM
Sorry to pile on here, but I hit post too early--I was going to add another point in favor of keeping the brackets.
To my mind, one of the biggest assets of this new edition is that it is more student and classroom friendly. A professor is much more likely to assign one of these smaller volumes for a class than one of the traditional volumes, both because of size and price. Without the traditional numbers in brackets , however, it would be nearly impossible for a student to perform research (say, for a term paper) using her book because her pagination would be different than the one used by in nearly all the secondary literature for over seven decades! This means that one of this edition's greatest asset--it's potential to used in classrooms--is greatly diminished.
In any event, I'm excited about this new edition. I think it will lead to a lot more students, pastors, and lay people reading Barth, because Barth will be much more accessible than before. Bravo!
Posted by: Clay Jackson | June 27, 2008 at 01:24 AM
I'm not sure how practical or user-friendly it would be to add yet more pagination details, but would it also be possible to include pagination from the German edition so those working with both the original language texts and the English translation can make connections more easily?
Posted by: Terry | June 27, 2008 at 09:16 AM
Loving it -- look forward to Christmas. Typeset positively crystalline.
N.b. if you've time to change it there's a typo in the second line of the Greek on sample page 013 -- should be a space between "tis" and "yap".
Posted by: James | August 21, 2008 at 10:24 PM