Wednesday 7 June 2006

Karl Barth and Johnny Cash

Lately I have been reading Karl Barth during the day, and then listening to Johnny Cash at night—which prompts the following short quiz:

Name something that Johnny Cash and Karl Barth have in common.

16 Comments:

Chris Tilling said...

Name something that Johnny Cash and Karl Barth have in common.

Easy.

Ben Myers.

Anonymous said...

No, but I can tell you what Billy the Kid and Gregory the Great had in common.

Their middle names.

Anonymous said...

That's easy: they both "sang their songs" in prison (e.g. Folsom for Cash, Basle for Barth).

Rick Sumner said...

They both wrote books about Paul (Cash's little known book is called "Man in White.")

Anonymous said...

They're both dead?

That's the only thing I can think of :-/

David Williamson said...

Karl Barth and Bono share a birthday, and Johnny Cash performed the definitive cover version of Bono's "One".

Anonymous said...

They both seemed to have enjoyed an intimate (not necessarily sexual in Barth's case) relationship with a woman other than their wife. And... they're both on my bookshelves.

guanilo said...

The easy answer is they're both wicked prolific.

The slightly more convoluted answer: all great theologians' names must begin with either A or B (I wrote about this a while back [it's worth mentioning that ergo Ben and I are in as Great Theologians]). The corollary is that all great musician's names, music being of course the closest possible secondary relation to theology as queen of the sciences, must begin with B or C, the "B" being the middle term that overlaps both. By virtue of his surname, then, Johnny Cash clearly belongs in the same class relative to his vocation as Barth, and Venn-diagram style, these classes in fact overlap. Therefore via strict logical deducation they in fact stand in the same set (this is all in Cantor, natch). Q.E.D.

Anonymous said...

Hey Gaunilo,

You're a deducational genius! Come on, then, out with it - who is 666? (Or is it 999 in Australia?) :)

guanilo said...

Hah! I was hoping someone would ask. The truth is, see, 666 is not a person but a date; specifically, 6.6.06, as in yesterday (at least here in 'Merkuh). The "0" doesn't count, but that's a long and complicated proof.

I haven't yet cracked the code as to what is special about this date (the "eclipse of God," perhaps?), but it does certainly mean we're now in the eschaton. Neat, huh?

Anonymous said...

They both smoked )dutch)cigars.

Jason said...

Gaunilo,
I'm fairly certain you actually meant to conclude your proof "QED,B". I mention it here only for the sake of form.

Ben,et al:
My best guess -- which is not to say a good guess -- is that 1968 is the year when Herr Doktor Professor Barth went to his eternal reward, and the year when Johnny Cash married June Carter.
-JF

Anonymous said...

They both visited Princeton in 1962?

Ben Myers said...

Thanks to all of you for your entertaining suggestions. The connection that I had in mind was the one Kim mentioned: prison. Both Johnny Cash and Karl Barth had a special affection for prisoners (Cash's most famous concerts were in prisons, and Barth preached regularly at the local prison, so that it was said: "you must break the law in order to hear Karl Barth preach").

But I have now learned more than I ever dreamed about the connections between Cash and Barth....

Anonymous said...

There's a great scene in the Walk the Line movie where some executive tells Cash that good Christians wouldn't be caught dead near the prisoners of Folsom. Cash replies: "Then they're not Christians."

byron smith said...

This post reminds me of Carroll's famous question: why is a raven like a writing desk?

For those really bugged by this question, see here.

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