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)

3. True Religion (Post 2) As a historian of Christianity, I take particular pleasure in Barth's very clear acknowledge of the difficulty of teaching and writing about the history of Christianity: We must not allow ourselves to be confused by the fact that a history of Christianity can be written only as a story of … Continue reading I/2 §17 The Revelation of God as the Abolition of Religion

3. True Religion (Part 1) All the preceding content in §17 is preliminary to Barth's key statement: "we can speak of 'true' religion only in the sense in which we speak of a 'justified sinner.'" (I/2/325)  The balance of Barth's discussion of the revelation of God as the abolition of religion must be seen through this … Continue reading I/2 §17 The Revelation of God as the Abolition of Religion

2. Religion As Unbelief The theological evaluation of "religion" must proceed with great charity: it will take the human very seriously, but not the human apart from God per se: rather the human who is intended (whether he or she has heard or not) in the Word of God. It will not evaluate religion as … Continue reading I/2 §17 The Revelation of God as the Abolition of Religion

1. The Problem of Religion in Theology (conclusion) The extended note discussed previously really carries the intellectual burden of this chapter.  For the rest of the chapter, Barth puts the question of the reversal of revelation and religion in his present context, which was the rising Nazi state.  Everything else in this chapter --indeed in … Continue reading I/2 §17 The Revelation of God as the Abolition of Religion

1. The Problem of Religion in Theology (extended note, part 4) To recap: Barth has traced the concept "religion" from Thomas Aquinas on down to Johannes Franciscus Buddeus and Salomon van Til, "doughty" theologians who would not have welcomed the historical consequences of their own fateful reversal of revelation and religion, with the effect that … Continue reading I/2 §17 The Revelation of God as the Abolition of Religion

1. The Problem of Religion in Theology (extended note, part 3) To recap: Barth understands religion not as the problem of theology, but as a problem. He passionately argues against apprehending God's Word as the revelation of religion instead of (properly) the religion of revelation, which brings a word of grace and judgment on all … Continue reading I/2 §17 The Revelation of God as the Abolition of Religion

1. The Problem of Religion in Theology (extended note, part 2) Barth's extended note requires several blog entries; the previous blog entry explicated Barth's fundamental argument that liberal Protestant theology moved from proclaiming the religion of revelation to presenting the revelation of religion. Religion came to be regarded as the problem of theology rather than … Continue reading I/2 §17 The Revelation of God as the Abolition of Religion

1. The Problem of Religion in Theology (extended note, part 1) As I noted previously the question about the evaluation of "religion" in light of the revelation of God is  very important to the long-term viability of this reading project. I will devote several extended blog entries to it.  This is the first of four … Continue reading I/2 §17 The Revelation of God as the Abolition of Religion

1. The Problem of Religion in Theology Personal note: This section appears in this blog out of order (I was next intending to take up I/1/ §7, The Word of God, Dogma, and Dogmatics).  An explanation for this departure seems appropriate. In 2012 I became unwillingly involved in a particularly galling example of hypocrisy, one … Continue reading I/2 §17 The Revelation of God as the Abolition of Religion

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

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