The Great Promise gives a powerful exegesis of the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke which tells the story of the Advent—focusing on the birth of John the Baptist in preparation for the birth of Christ. It consists of four stenographically recorded biblical lectures which Karl Barth gave to his theology students during Advent in 1934, after his lectures at the University of Bonn had been suspended by the Nazi regime.
Uncovering what he calls “the spiritual birth story of John the Baptist,” Barth proclaims it to be the spiritual birth story of anyone who knows himself to be standing under God. His biblical account is thus interwoven with a continuous reference to the way in which God acts upon the world today no less than in the past and how humans may or may not submit to such acting.
