3. The Problem of Dogmatic Prolegomena Finally Barth reaches the point of §7: Dogmatics is a Wissenschaft that "consciously and explicitly treads its own very specific path of knowledge as specifically defined by its object." (I/1/287) But this specific path has not been agreed upon for the past four hundred (now five hundred) years --such … Continue reading I/1 § 7: The Word of God, Dogma, and Dogmatics

2. Dogmatics as a Science The German title of this section is Dogmatik als Wissenschaft --and it is worth noting that in German Dogmatik is singular (whereas "dogmatics" in English is plural, since "dogmatic" is an adjective, often not a very positive one) and Wissenschaft has a particular meaning in German that is different from … Continue reading I/1 § 7: The Word of God, Dogma, and Dogmatics

1. The Problem of Dogmatics (part 2) Barth has maintained steadily that the Bible's role in and over against the Church cannot be proven, because by offering such a proof the Church or the theologian would seek to control and define the Bible.  The result would be to show the Bible as the property of … Continue reading I/1 § 7: The Word of God, Dogma, and Dogmatics

The criterion of dogmatics is "the standard by which dogmatics must measure Church proclamation [which] should not have become provisionally comprehensible in all its incomprehensibility." (I/1/248)