scholarly journals Barth backwards: reading theChurch Dogmatics‘from the end’

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-390
Author(s):  
Rob McDonald
Keyword(s):  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
Divine Election

AbstractThis article proposes a way of reading Karl Barth'sChurch Dogmaticsbackwards or ‘from the end’. Employing this method to exploreThe Doctrine of GodandThe Doctrine of the Word of Godhighlights two aspects of Barth's theology. The first is the importance of communion to Barth's account of the immanence and economy of God, especially in his understanding of God as the ‘Lord of Glory’. The second is Barth's careful balancing of christology and pneumatology across the first two volumes of theDogmaticsthrough the use of a chiastic structure that underpins his construal of divine election and his account of divine revelation.

Speech-act theory to enhance Karl Barth's homiletical postulation of a sermon's ‘revelatory compliance’

2015 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-200
Author(s):  
Markus Thane
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Speech Act Theory ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Speech Event ◽  
Character Of God ◽  
The University

AbstractKarl Barth's theology is a theology which was born from the pulpit. For Barth the formulation and enactment of the unity of church, theology and proclamation had become an integral part of his life and theological legacy. While Barth taught as professor at the University of Bonn he published his first volume of hisChurch Dogmatics(CD) with an emphasis on divine revelation. At the time of the publication ofCDI, Barth held two seminars on homiletics. The seminar notes were later assembled and turned into a book with the same title. If both works,CDI andHomiletics, are compared side by side a major theological inconsistency becomes apparent. InCDI Barth emphasises that revelation as the ‘Word of God’ remains with God, leaving the divine as the solely acting sovereign. Whereas inHomiletics, Barth talks about a sermon's ‘Offenbarungsmässigkeit’ – a sermon's revelatory compliance. These two postulations are not only in tension but they contradict each other. The underlying problem is that Barth cannot define revelation as a solely divine act which takes place separately and independently of human interaction; by simultaneously asking for a sermon and preachers’ revelatory compliance, as if otherwise God would not be able to reveal himself. This poses the question as to how this inconsistency can be resolved. The underlying problem for Barth was at that time, apparently, upholding both divine revelation and human proclamation without compromising the character of God and the nature of a sermon. A way out of the dilemma can be found if revelation and sermon delivery are reframed and complemented by the philosophical approach of John R. Searle's and John L. Austin's ‘speech-act theory’. ‘Speech act theory’ better appropriates Barth's desire to elevate a homily because of the ‘reality change’ which takes places in the very act of proclamation. In this theory proclamation is understood as a human act bound to God's truth which is creating a ‘new reality’ that opens and expects to have this reality filled and actualised by God's sovereign act of revelation. When proclamation/preaching is interpreted as ‘speech-act theory’, this follows Barth's desire to elevate the human act of the sermon delivery by simultaneously keeping the distinction between the human and divine, which is really worthy to be called a speech event.

The Doctrine of the Sabbath in Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics

1967 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
James Brown
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Ethical Question ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
Good Action ◽  
Doctrine Of Creation

‘… the ethical question—at least, if it is intended and understood in a way which is meaningful from the Christian and theological standpoint—cannot rightly be asked and answered except within the framework, or at any rate the material context, of dogmatics. True man and his good action can be viewed only from the standpoint of the true and active God and His goodness’ (C.D. 111.4, p. 3). Ethics, for Barth, is a part of Dogmatics. This explains the heavily doctrinal setting of his treatment of the Sabbath commandment. It is part of the doctrine of Creation: the Sabbath is ‘The Command of God the Creator’—the title indeed of Chapter XII, which takes up the whole of volume C.D. 111.4. The nature or character of the God revealed in the Scriptural account of Creation, who in Jesus Christ is also Redeemer and Sanctifier, determines our view of the nature or character of His command. His command is good, and its aim is our goodness, our sanctification, our freedom before God. ‘Man's action is good in so far as he is the obedient hearer of the Word and command of God…. Ethics has to understand the Word of God as the fulness, measure and source of this sanctification’ (p. 4). This doctrine of God is General Ethics. Special Ethics is the teaching of how man is to respond to the command of this God.

Pentecostal Understanding of Sanctification from a Pentecostal Perspective

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
Hollis Gause
Keyword(s):  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Holy Trinity ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Birth ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Fruit Of The Spirit ◽  
The Trinity

AbstractThe doctrine of the Holy Trinity is the product of divine revelation, and is a doctrine of divine worship. The expressions of this doctrine come out of worshipful response to divine revelation demonstrating the social nature of the Trinity and God's incorporating the human creature in His own sociality and personal pluralism. The perfect social union between God and the man and woman that he had created was disrupted by human sin. God redeemed the fallen creature, and at the heart of this redemptive experience lies the doctrine of Holy Trinity, with the Holy Spirit as the communing agent of all the experiences of salvation. The Spirit is especially active in the provision and fulfillment of sanctification, which is presented here as the continuum of 'holiness-unity-love'. He produces the graces of the Holy Spirit – the fruit of the Spirit. He implants the Seed of the new birth which is the word of God. He purifies by the blood of Jesus. He establishes union and communion among believers and with God through His Son Jesus. This is holiness.

Actualism and Beauty: Karl Barth's Insistence on the Auch in his Account of Divine Beauty

2013 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
William T. Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Free Action ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Theological Aesthetics ◽  
Free Love ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
Hans Urs Von Balthasar ◽  
Experience Of God ◽  
Free Dynamic ◽  
Divine Beauty

AbstractHans Urs von Balthasar claimed that Barth's Church Dogmatics demonstrates a weakening of his distinctive actualism in order to make space for ‘the concept of authentic objective form’, a point illustrated by the discourse on divine beauty in CD II/1. There Barth treats the divine being as an objective form to be contemplated, a seeming departure from Barth's privileged conceptualisation of God as personal subject whose free action humbles our theoretical gaze and graciously provides the material content for proper speech about God. Bruce McCormack has challenged von Balthasar's general thesis, arguing that no weakening has in fact taken place in the Church Dogmatics. If this is the case, what then of Barth's discourse on divine beauty? Is it consistent with his actualistic doctrine of God? Is it possible to speak of God both as a free, dynamic event and an object of beauty? Can theological aesthetics find a home within Barth's actualism? This article answers in the affirmative by demonstrating the systematic integrity between Barth's claims about divine beauty and the actualism permeating CD II/1. First, the article examines the ambiguity of Barth's specific claims about divine beauty. Barth is both enthusiastic and hesitant in speaking about divine beauty, affirming the concept yet placing careful qualifications on its use. Next, the article illustrates how the nature of these claims is anticipated by the actualism of CD II/1, specifically by (1) Barth's clear rejection of divine formlessness, (2) his argument that God's act of self-revelation in Jesus Christ implies an objective triune form for God's being and, lastly, (3) how he grounds discourse on divine beauty in the event of God's dynamic, free love. The article finally contends that the key to Barth's puzzling position on divine beauty is in understanding the precise reason why he registers beauty as a necessary but insufficient theological concept. This qualification is rooted in an important content–form, spirit–nature distinction which frames all discussion about God's being-in-act. Throughout CD II/1, objective form is a necessary condition for divine self-expression, but objectivity is always grounded in the freedom of the Spirit. Thus, the freedom-to-love at the heart of God's triune existence is the ground of our experience of God as beautiful, not any continuity with our contemplation of created forms. As such, the creative freedom animating God's triune life provides the space for, but also the limit to, theological aesthetics by imbuing divine beauty in mystery.

Divine Revelation in West Africa and Central Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 419-435
Author(s):  
Josiah Ulysses Young
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Doctrine Of God ◽  
Traditional Religions ◽  
African Independent Churches ◽  
Independent Churches ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
African Traditional Religions

This chapter examines divine revelation in West Africa and Central Africa, with a historical focus on the relation of biblical beliefs to African traditional religions. It discusses the African independent churches, specifically the Église de Jésus-Christ sur la Terre par le Prophète Simon Kimbangu; Vincent Mulago’s essay in Des prêtres noirs s’interrogent (1956); specific essays from the book Biblical Revelation and African Beliefs (1969); and Engelbert Mveng’s book L’Art d’Afrique noire: liturgie cosmique et langage religieux (1964). The chapter also examines the recent scholarship of the Ghanaian theologian Mercy Oduyoye and the Congolese scholars Oscar Bimwenyi-Kweshi and Kä Mana. Regarding the relationship between divine revelation and African traditional religions, it discusses J. B. Danquah’s book The Akan Doctrine of God (1944), the arguments of the Congolese Egyptologist Mubabinge Bilolo, and the West African scholar Ntumba Museka.

Qur’an

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard Bowering
Keyword(s):  
Divine Revelation ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Human History ◽  
Divine Will ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Historical Origin ◽  
Religious Scholarship ◽  
Holy Book

This chapter discusses the historical origin and development, religious scholarship, political elements, and legacy of the Qur'an. The Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, is the most recent of the major sacred scriptures to have appeared in human history. It includes the prophetic proclamations of Muhammad (570–632) in Arabic, collected after his death in definitive written form and meticulously transmitted through the centuries. More than a billion Muslims around the globe consider the Qur'an to be the eternal word of God, who “sent down” the scripture as his final divine revelation and commissioned Muhammad to be the last prophet to proclaim his divine will for all of humanity to follow.

The Architecture of Karl Barths Church Dogmatics

1956 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-250
Author(s):  
John Godsey
Keyword(s):  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Human Reason ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Human Element ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Church ◽  
Working Backwards

It may sound a bit presumptuous to speak of the architecture of a dogmatics which is not yet complete, but the size and scope of Professor Barth's Church Dogmatics to date would seem to justify our attempt to examine its outer structure in order to discover the basic dynamic principles involved in this Protestant ‘Summa’. In following this procedure, however, we should be aware that we are working backwards, for, unlike the many dogmatics in which the Christian Faith has been forced into a pre-established mould, Professor Barth has been willing to cast the mould in accordance with the demands of the Faith itself. This is not to deny in any way the obvious human element involving meticulous planning and unusually sensitive organisational skill, but is to state clearly that the Church Dogmatics is not a system conforming to the dictates of human reason, but is a bold yet humble attempt to write a systematic theology which conforms to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. As such, the architectural plans must necessarily result from obedient and faithful listening to the Word of God spoken to the Church, and all future designs must remain fluid and prepared for unexpected changes.

Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics

2020 ◽  
pp. 341-353
Author(s):  
Eberhard Busch
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Magnum Opus ◽  
Classical Traditions

The most significant Reformed theologian of the twentieth century, Karl Barth, exercised a remarkably critical role relative to the classical traditions of Reformed Theology. His theological project drew on modern biblical criticism, post-Kantian philosophy, and early twentieth-century approaches to Christocentrism. Nevertheless, he prepared to offer a systematic theology by going to school with the classic texts of the Reformed tradition and by engaging in prolonged biblical exegesis. Eventually, Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics presented an orderly account of the Christian faith centred on and beginning with the self-presentation of God in Jesus Christ. It enfolds prolegomena, ethics, and homiletical guidance within its span, believing these ancillary discussions to demand properly theological and thus Christological regulation. This chapter explores the Christological focus and rhetorical style before turning to introduce each of the constituent parts (Word of God, God, Creation, and Reconciliation) of that magnum opus.

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