This book takes us behind prison bars--to hear powerful, simple, direct sermons by the man widely known as the twentieth century's most influential theologian. Originally delivered to inmates of the prison in Basel, Switzerland, these sermons shine with Karl Barth's thought and exaltation of the living Christ. Including sermons on the great feasts of the Christian year such as Christmas and Easter, Deliverance to the Captives offers new hope powerfully phrased, and a wide entry into the thought of a supreme theologian. ""It has been Barth's work to turn the Christian field with a resharpened plow. These sermons' dominant note is of hope, of joy in the Lord, of an ardor that can assert, concerning faith, that 'no human being has ever prayed for this in vain.'"" -- John Updike, The New Yorker Karl Barth (1886-1968), the Swiss Reformed professor and pastor, was once described by Pope Pius XII as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas. As principal author of 'The Barmen Declaration', he was the intellectual leader of the German Confessing Church - the Protestant group that resisted the Third Reich. Barth's teaching career spanned nearly five decades. Removed from his post at Bonn by the Nazis in late 1934, Barth moved to Basel where he taught until 1962. Among Barth's many books, sermons, and essays are 'The Epistle to the Romans', 'Humanity of God', 'Evangelical Theology', and 'Church Dogmatics'.