Barth - Church Dogmatics, 1.1

Front 1

Barth (theology)

Back 1

Theology must be described as a science:

1. Theology is brought in line with other disciplines that seek truth.
2. Theology helps reconstitute science from being a pagan activity.
3. Theology helps identify science as an activity of the Church despite science's resistance to the theological task. (9)

Front 2

Barth (dogmatics)

Back 2

"Dogmatics is the self-examination of the Christian Church in respect of the content of its distinctive talk about God" (10)

-presupposes true content of talk about God can be known by humanity through God's address to humanity in Jesus Christ. "God in Jesus Christ is the essence of the Church" (10).

-presupposes true content of talk about God must be known by humanity through God's address to humanity in Jesus Christ. Christian speech must be tested by conformity to Christ (10).

Dogmatics is an act of the Church; no dogmatics outside the Church. It always begins from a position of faith; faith is a gracious gift of God (17-18). Dogmatics done in humility.

All dogmatics involve presuppositions--thus Schl. introduction is dogmatics (37). For Barth, the Pro in prolegomena, is the first part of dogmatics, rather than that which is prior to it. All dogmatics is from a position of faith (41).

Dogmatics has true content when what the Church says about God relates to the prior Word of God Himself (42).

Front 3

Barth (Word of God)

Back 3

Prolegomena is the sacred scriptures. "We shall see that the cardinal statement of the doctrine o the Word of God which we shall try to develop in what follows is indeed materially the same as the assertion of the authority and normativeness of Holy Scripture as the witness to divine revelation and the presupposition of the Church proclamation" (42-43).

Front 4

Barth (revelation)

Back 4

(from 1.1)
revelation is from God to humanity
onesided
man knows nothing without revelation

Front 5

Barth (nature of God)

Back 5

From 1.1
God is God
Totally other
Christianity=trinitarian
Triunity is the term he uses to show “the dialectical union and distinction in the mutual relation between the two formulae that are one-sided and inadequate in themselves”
one cannot know one member without the other three

Front 6

Barth (nature of the world)

Back 6

from 1.1
fallen world
we don't know God through creation [our reason] but in spite of it
we are distorted by the fall

Front 7

Barth (Christology)

Back 7

Christ is the Word of God
Jesus is the center of the universe so to speak for Barth

Front 8

Barth (human ability)

Back 8

(from 1.1)
no ability without God there is no ability
yet humanity does participate and experience God but it is determined by God
“The world, then, cannot evolve into agreement with God’s Word on its own initiative, nor can the Church achieve this by its work in and on the world.”

Front 9

Barth (theology)

Back 9

(from 1.1)
the self examination by the Church
Theology is “a laborious movement from one partial human insight to another with the intention though with no guarantee of advance”
has its own rules and does not need to follow the rules of any other discipline.
is broad. even those in other disciplines are actually doing theology

Front 10

Barth (truth)

Back 10

God is truth.
due to our fallen nature we are sometime mistaken about what is true. thus self analysis by the church is good

Front 11

Barth (history)

Back 11

(from 1.1)
does not argue for a critical approach to history.

Front 12

Barth (Bible)

Back 12

not the Word of God
a human witness of Godinfallible
yet defends the bible against attacks.
does not approve of the category of myth

Front 13

Barth (Proclamation)

Back 13

Not all talk about God is proclamation. Theology is reflection of proclamation. Dogmatics is too is the Church's reflection on talk about God.

Proclamation is such when:

1) Preaching in the form of the exposition of the biblical witness to express the promise of revelation and vocation of God.

2) Sacrament accompanied by preaching and according to the witness to revelation attests to the event of revelation, reconciliation, and vocation. (56)

Proclamation is required as an execution of God's command. Dogmatics is required because proclamation is a fallible human work. Proclamation is infallible when referencing the World and fallible as an activity of the Church.

The datum of proclamation is God and revelation and faith. The datum of dogmatics is proclamation (82).

Front 14

Barth (Forms of Word of God)

Back 14

Word of God in Three Forms

1) Word of God Preached: WoG commissions, is the object of, is the judgment in virtue of, and most importantly, is the event of proclamation. On the latter, the event of proclamation is the willing and doing of the incarnate Son who took on humanity while simultaneously being God.

2) Word of God Written: Prophetic and apostolic witness to WoG revealed in the past and anticipated in the future. This rejects authority residing in the Church or the Bible, but instead sees authority in the WoG revealed through history. Like preaching is to real proclamation, the Bible is representative to God's Word. Thus it is God's Word, yet it becomes God's Word in the event of revelation (109-110).

3) Word of God Revealed: The Bible is a witness to past revelation; preaching is a witness to present and future revelation. Preaching and the Bible are God's Word because they become God's Word. However, it is God's Word itself that is revealed in preaching and the Bible. The Word of God revealed is a divine, gracious act.

4) Unity of the Word of God: Three forms--revelation, proclamation, and the Bible. Revelation underlies proclamation and Bible.

Front 15

Barth (Nature of Word of God)

Back 15

Nature of the Word of God

1) WoG is Speech of God: spiritual, personal ("God's speaking person," Jesus Christ), purposive in being directed to us to smite us, to restore our relationship with God, and mediate reconciliation.

2) Speech of God as Act of God: Speech of God as a person is God's action in time (incarnation), to rule over all things, as God's decision.

3) Speech of God as the Mystery of God: The Speech of God remains God and still remains transcendent despite being the Act of God. He is mysterious in his pervasive manifestation in history (see also 168). Mysterious because it remains veiled and unveiled simultaneously. Mysterious b/c of its spirituality; it is only known in faith.

Front 16

Barth (Knowability of God)

Back 16

Knowability of Word of God

Knowledge of God is the presupposition of the Church, and vice a versa. Knowledge of God defined only in terms of its own object. This pursues back against the application of scientific tools and methods to the study of theology. It rejects the epistemological challenge initiated by Descartes.

1) Word of God and Man: WoG directed to men and men participate in proclamation and Bible. Knowledge of God possible.

2) Word of God and Experience: Man experiences the WoG in history, but will, conscience, and feelings while self-determined in other contexts are wholly determined by the affect of the WoG on man.

3) Word of God and Faith: Faith makes knowledge of God possible (Anselm). Faith is the acknowledgment of God's Word. Faith given by God and only in faith is real experience of the Word of God possible. Man is the subject of faith only because God is the the Thou of the subject of God (245).

Front 17

Barth (Word of God, dogmatics, and dogma)

Back 17

Word of God, dogma, and dogmatics

"Dogmatics is the critical question about dogma, i.e., about the Word of God in Church proclamation, or, concretely, about the agreement of the Church proclamation done and to be done by man with the revelation attested in Holy Scripture. Prolegomena to dogmatics as an understanding of its epistemological path must therefore consist in an exposition of the three forms of the Word of God as revealed, written, and preached" (248).

1) Problem of Dogmatics: Confusing the Word of God with dogmatics.

2) Dogmatics as a Science: Dogmatics not ruled by criteria of sciences concerned with object/subjects other than God. Three must haves of scientific dogmatics: a) Must be devoted to the problem of Church proclamation and not ancillary problems associated with it; b) Must be devoted to the criticism and correction of Church proclamation and not be a repetition of it; c) Must inquire into the agreement between Church proclamation and revelation attested in Holy Scripture.

3) Problem with Dogmatic Prolegomena: Investigation of the Bible, proclamation, and the Word of God are equally important dogmatics.