4. The Word of God and Faith Barth introduces this final section of §6 reiterating that "at the beginning of this section we said that we could investigate only the knowability and not the knowledge of the God's Word." (I/1/227)  Strictly speaking, however, Barth's language has varied but his point remains: to speak very, very … Continue reading I/1 §6: The Knowability of the Word of God

3. The Word of God and Experience (Part 3) Barth never say his famous "No!" without a "Yes!" lurking in the wings, but usually the "No!" comes first. The concluding subsection of this crucial chapter is no exception. Barth has affirmed that knowledge of the Word of God is possible, and that a human can … Continue reading I/1 § 6: The Knowability of the Word of God

3. The Word of God and Experience (Part 2) Barth turns to "what the experience of God's Word, i.e., the determination of the whole self-determining [human] by God's Word, might then consist." (I/1/204)  In brief he answers: acknowledgement (Anerkennung): "I am aware of no word relatively so appropriate as this one to the nature of … Continue reading I/1 § 6: The Knowability of the Word of God

3. The Word of God and Experience (Part 1) This is a very important section for Barth and marks his theological departure from a very important element of Modernist Protestant theology in his time, the analysis of experience (Erlebnis).  Both the care he expended on this text, and its complexity, suggest that Barth was carefully … Continue reading I/1 § 6: The Knowability of the Word of God

2. The Word of God and the Word of Man Barth's trenchant reservation, that "the concept of its knowledge [of the Word of God] cannot be definitively measured by the concept of the knowledge of other objects or by a general concept of knowledge" (I/1/190) --which closed the previous section--becomes useful immediately.  What does it … Continue reading I/1 § 6: The Knowability of the Word of God

1. The Question as to the Knowability of the Word of God At the very beginning of this section, Barth offers a recapitulation of his argument thus far.  (He will do so again at the beginning of §7.) In §3 the mandated content of Church proclamation is in the concept of the Word of God; … Continue reading I/1 § 6: The Knowability of the Word of God