T-Shirt Theologians 2 | Invoking the radical in Karl Barth

I was reminded of Karl Barth, when I passed by Popular Bookstore on the way to the seminary. There was a huge tarp poster with a posterized profile of the late labor leader, Crispin Beltran, that somehow resembled the face of Karl Barth.

There must be something in posterized images of revolutionaries that seemed to invoke the radical in passionate youths as I remember myself wearing such shirts that back then were deemed to be subversive as it gives a hint of our political tendencies –that was sad to say against that which is implemented by the state, I mean what does the face of Mao inscribed beside a phrase that reads: “Serve the People!” say about me and my beliefs, surely the t-shirt speaks a lot –and the same goes for those who opted to wear Che Guevarra or Uncle Ho instead...

T-Shirt Theologians 1 | What would Packer do?

I remember back in college when I used t-shirts to express my opinions on something (like my ‘Serve The People!’ or ‘Punk’s Not Dead!’ shirts) or to immortalize people whom I admire (like my Che Guevarra, or Sid Vicious shirts).

This shirt is an attempt to immortalize those who are at present instrumental in my formation spiritually as well as theologically, and I would like to start this post series off with James Innell Packer who is better known in Evangelical Christian circles as J.I. Packer, a British-born Canadian Christian theologian in the low church Anglican and Reformed traditions.