In 1949, Karl Barth confidently upholds a high doctrine of divine providence, main-taining God's control of every event in history. His argument is at once cheerful, but also defiant in the face of a Europe that is war-weary and doubtful of the full sovereignty of God.

Barth's movement to praise God shows his affin-ity for the Reformed theological tradition. While Barth often distances himself from his Calvinist predecessors in important ways, he sees his own view of providence to be a positive reworking of the Reformed position in order to maintain what he un-derstands as its most...