In succession to worldliness, Barth's second cardinal attribute of God's language as God's mystery is one-sidedness.

4. The Speech of God as the Mystery of God "God's language as God's mystery" forms the third series of attributes of the Word of God.  Barth is still working on the question, "What is the Word of God?" (I/1/132) by exploring the three forms of the Word of God (in §4) and then "in … Continue reading I/1 § 5: The Nature of the Word of God

3. The Speech of God As the Act of God It must be recalled from §2 that “We shall have to regard God’s speech as also God’s act, and God’s act as also God’s mystery.” (I/1/133).  This is (to repeat) the fundamental structure of Church Dogmatics §5, The Nature of the Word of God. Consequently … Continue reading I/1 § 5: The Nature of the Word of God

2. The Word of God the Speech of God It must be recalled from §1 that God and God's Word are never presented to humans in the way in which natural or historical entities are presented to humans: we can never retrospectively define or prospectively predict what God's Word is.  God's Word "is something God … Continue reading I/1 § 5: The Nature of the Word of God

1. The Question as to the Nature of the Word of God (Excursus) This excursus marks a significant shift in Barth's thinking from his original publication of Die christliche Dogmatik to the present Die kirchliche Dogmatik.  In this excursus, Barth summarizes two significant objections, what they signified to him, and why he changed his mind.  … Continue reading I/1 § 5: The Nature of the Word of God

1. The Question as to the Nature of the Word of God The entire fifth section of I/1 attempts to answer the question,a "natural and popular question, also found not infrequently on the lips of theologians: What is the Word of God?" (I/1/132)  Barth faces the unique difficulty of theology here: "God and His Word … Continue reading I/1 § 5: The Nature of the Word of God

4. The Unity of the Word of God This short section is a summary just longer than one published page, supplemented by a long bibliographical excursus which indicates the historical doctrinal sources for Barth's doctrine of the threefold form of the Word of God. The Word of God is "is one and the same whether … Continue reading I/1 § 4: The Word of God in its Threefold Form

3. The Revealed Word of God What is the relationship between the forms of the Word of God: proclamation, Scripture, and revelation?  "The Bible is the concrete means by which the Church recollects God's past revelation, is called to expectation of His future revelation, and is thus summoned and guided to proclamation and empowered for … Continue reading I/1 § 4: The Word of God in its Threefold Form

2. The Written Word of God. The "written Word of God" is a topic much closer to the root of Protestant Christian identity, and as such most of Barth's comments here seem to be written with Protestant disputes in mind. But he does not begin with Protestants, but again with a Catholic understanding, since the … Continue reading I/1 § 4: The Word of God in its Threefold Form

Concluding Excursus to 1. The Word of God as Preached: Apostolic Succession Barth's concluding excursus to the first section of §4 is really an article in its own right, and deserves careful reading. Barth's point of departure if Adolf von Harnack's essay Christus praesens--Vicarius Christi, published in 1927. (For full citation see I/1/106.)  Barth not … Continue reading I/1 § 4 : The Word of God in its Threefold Form

1. The Word of God as Preached In §§ 2 and 3 Barth set out some of the formal disciplinary boundaries for understanding the teaching of the Church, and the task of dogmatics to reflect upon its message and mission self-critically.  He only touched upon the real content of church proclamation, however, since his subject … Continue reading I/1 § 4 : The Word of God in its Threefold Form

2. Dogmatics and Church Proclamation This section does not hold Barth's strongest writing.  Barth's own structure gives indirect support to this appraisal in §7,3 "The Problem of Dogmatic Prolegomena" (I/1/287-292), nearly at the center of I/1. There Barth summarizes his broad argument undertaken in §1--§7 --but never even implicitly refers to §3 at all! Barth … Continue reading I/1/ § 3 Church Proclamation as the Material of Dogmatics

1. Language about God and Church Proclamation With §3 Barth passes from "prolegomena" strictly to the first major chapter of The Doctrine of the Word of God, entitled The Word of God as the Criterion of Dogmatics.  The intellectual material which dogmatics considers is Church Proclamation, and Barth must situate such proclamation in the wider … Continue reading 1/1 § 3 Church Proclamation as the Material of Dogmatics

2. The Possibility of Dogmatic Prolegomena "How are dogmatic prolegomena possible as a preliminary understanding of the way of knowledge to be pursued?" (I/1/36) Barth begins to join theological conflicts in this section even more pointedly. According to the answer of modernist dogmatics: "tthat the Church and faith are to be understood as links in … Continue reading I/1 § 2 The Task of Prolegomena to Dogmatics

1. The Need for Dogmatic Prolegomena This entire section again places the reader in the distant context of Barth's change of mind from the so-called Göttingen Dogmatics to this revised project Die kirchliche Dogmatik.  In this section, Barth's rejection both of Roman Catholic theology and Protestant Modern theology become very sharp. The entire section is … Continue reading I/1 § 2 The Task of Prolegomena to Dogmatics

3. Dogmatics as an Act of Faith Dogmatics, according to Barth, is always a part of the work of human knowledge, but a work "under a particularly decisive condition." (I/1/17)  Beyond all the other requirements of the disciplines of human knowledge, dogmatics presupposes Christian faith, and as such "is a function of the Christian Church."(ibid.)  … Continue reading I/1 § 1: The Task of Dogmatics (3)

2. Dogmatics as an Enquiry Barth defines dogmatics as "the self-examination of the Christian Church in respect of the content of its distinctive talk about God." (I/1/11) He notes that he will continue this discussion in §7, The Word of God, Dogma, and Dogmatics. Barth begins one of his characteristic circular movements, because this sub-section … Continue reading I/1 § 1: The Task of Dogmatics (2)

I. The Church, Theology, Science. St. Thomas begins Summa Theologiae (a.k.a. Summa Theologica) by delineating whether sacra doctrina is necessary or whether a human properly should stick to "philosophical disciplines" (by which he means anything available to human intelligence). Thus it was necessary that, besides the philosophical doctrines which can be investigated by reason, there … Continue reading I/1 § 1: The Task of Dogmatics (1)