an invention of the Antichrist

No, not the snooze button on your alarm.  It's the analogy of being.  Or so says Karl Barth.  I'm only up to page fifty-five in The Theology of Karl Barth (I need to get crackin'), but here's what I've gleaned so far.

The analogy of being is the structure or formal principle of Catholicism.  "It presupposes that the relationship between God and creature can already be recognized in our philosophical foreunderstanding (of natural theology).  This means God's revelation in Jesus Christ seems to be but the fulfillment of an already existing knowledge and reality."  Barth says the analogy of being is an attempt to "lay hands" on God - reduce or overpower God.  It puts God and creature on the same level.  Catholicism's theology of "and" (faith and works, nature and grace, reason and revelation, Scripture and tradition) and its theology of cooperating grace are symptoms of this. 

In a nutshell, God's revelation in Jesus is not the backbone of Catholicism, according to Barth.  "He accuses it [Catholicism] of possessing an overarching systematic principle that is merely an abstract statement about the analogy of being and not a frank assertion that Christ is the Lord."  He has agreements with the content of many of its doctrines, but because the formal principle (this analogy of being) is wrong, "one cannot become a Catholic."  But von Balthasar (a Catholic), who thinks Barth's theology is "lovely," denies that the Catholic church lays hands on God.  I expect in the rest of the book he will lay out Barth's theology and give a Catholic response.

Okay, but what exactly is this "analogy of being," you might ask.  Can't you define it a bit more clearly?  Uh..not yet.  I'm going to have to get back to you.  Thanks for tuning in, folks.