In every walk of life there are heroes or “saints” - people whose lives inspire or challenge the rest in the true meaning of living. Some earn recognition while others may not be acknowledged or even noticed.

Karl Barth (May 10, 1886 – December 10, 1968) is acknowledged as one of The Ten Most Influential Christians of the Twentieth Century. Yet, not many Christians necessarily recognized him as they recognized some of the other “nine greats” who made up the list: Billy Graham, for example; John XXIII, Martin Luther King, Jr, Mother Teresa, John Paul II, or C.S. Lewis.

Karl Barth was a theologian – one of those academics whose influence is felt by other academics, not quite consequential to the ordinary Christian! Or was he?

It was his intellectual faculties that propelled him to champion for the distinction between the divine God and the forces of humanism of his time. His academic examination of the Epistle to the Romans enhanced, for all Christians, the contrast between the power of the Gospel and that of the state in its oppression of the poor.

His opposition of the Nazis and their “German Christian Church” is certainly exemplary for everyone. The Theological Declaration of Barmen, which he drafted (with Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller) is a testament of the Christian virtue of defending the defenseless.

There is so much at stake for the poor, the needy and the marginalized in today's society. In the neighborhoods of Cincinnati and in the halls of Congress, there are risks of the defenseless being discounted.

On this anniversary of Karl Barth's birthday, his life's example can serve as a reminder of our duty to our Creator and to one another.