Any environment that measures itself by its own yardstick will find the minority view of theology and the theologian seriously suspect. In such a situation a person may easily become desperate, bitter, skeptical, perhaps even bellicose and mean; he may become inclined, as an accuser, to turn permanently against his fellow men on account of their lifelong folly and wickedness. Precisely this, of course, may not be permitted to happen. If the ethics of evangelical theology does not wish to convict itself of falsehood, it must be represented, for all its definiteness, only by the greatest serenity and peaceableness. Admittedly, its voice will be that of the ''lonely bird on the housetop, resounding pleasingly only in the ears of a few, and constantly exposed to the danger of being shot down by the first comer— a risk that is perhaps not always insignificant. It is likely that theology will scarcely ever become popular, as little with the pious as with the children of this world, precisely because of the ethical and practical disturbance that issues from it directly and indirectly. Whoever involves himself in theology, if he does this seriously, must be ready and able, in a given situation, to endure and bear loneliness just in respect to his practical ethics.

— Evangelical theology by Karl Barth (Page 119 - 120)