Reading through Barth is to discover a mine of quotations from other writers - the man appears to have read everything. Here are two from this morning's reading.
First Augustine:
"Non mediator homo praeter deitatem, non mediator Deus praeter humanitatem. Ecce mediator: divinitas sine humanitate non est mediatrix; humanitas sine divinitate non est mediatrix; sed inter divinitatem solam et humanitatem solam mediatrix est humana divinitas et divina humanitas Christi." (Sermo 47:12 2)
and then Martin Luther:
"Christ is the light of men through his humanity .... through which his divinity shines as through a mirror or a coloured glass, or as the sun through a light cloud; for the light is ascribed to the divinity, not the
humanity; yet the humanity is not despised, since it is there as the cloud and curtain of this light." (Pred. uber Jn 1:1ff.)
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Monday, 28 July 2008
Principles!
"It was always a serious misinterpretation of the New Testament as well as of the Old Testament, to think of discovering its content (after the manner of all, legalism) in certain principles. It makes no difference
whether it was the principle of sonship to God, or perhaps the struggle of true religion with the church, or vice versa the principle of the Church as the place of the true transmission of salvation and adoration of God, or a definite moral principle (say that of action on conviction or that of unconditioned love) .... or the principle of this or that mystical or social theory and practice which was to be the preferred and presented as the essence of the matter ........ we would do well to realise that in the sense of the New Testament writers themselves,
literally everything they say would be but marginal and incidental and transient, if interpreted as the proclamation of a principle or idea or general truth - but that literally everything is central and fundamental
and eternal, the moment it is interpreted as the predicate in an utterance about Jesus Christ."
whether it was the principle of sonship to God, or perhaps the struggle of true religion with the church, or vice versa the principle of the Church as the place of the true transmission of salvation and adoration of God, or a definite moral principle (say that of action on conviction or that of unconditioned love) .... or the principle of this or that mystical or social theory and practice which was to be the preferred and presented as the essence of the matter ........ we would do well to realise that in the sense of the New Testament writers themselves,
literally everything they say would be but marginal and incidental and transient, if interpreted as the proclamation of a principle or idea or general truth - but that literally everything is central and fundamental
and eternal, the moment it is interpreted as the predicate in an utterance about Jesus Christ."
Church Dogmatics Vol. 1 The Doctrine of the Word of God. p.11
The current "principle" which holds us in thrall is "inclusiveness" - whenever you see an individual congregation or a denomination trying to sum up its approach, there is a very good chance that the word "inclusive" will appear somewhere. In many cases that will be code word meaning " we are very welcoming of homosexuals practicing or not". It might mean more properly, " we do not wish differences of race, age, sex, colour or social standing etc etc to prevent any one from hearing and being challenged by the gospel of Jesus Christ. " It is true that we can all come to God in Christ just as we are; but no-one is left unchallenged or unchanged by an authentic encounter with the living Christ. There are some parts of every life that God does NOT welcome.
Sunday, 27 July 2008
Dairy of a black-sheep in summer!
You resident black sheep has some serious reading to do over the summer! The plan is to plough through as much of Karl Barth's "Church Dogmatics" as possible. The CD is possibly one of the greatest works of Reformed theology ever written and certainly one of the longest from the pen of an individual author. It's title, in English, combines two of the (currently) dirtiest words in the English language
Church: this summer we are witnessing the Anglican communion struggling not to blow itself to bits over homosexuality, not the most edifying spectacle even for those who know enough to understand why this is a necessary debate. From the outside the church looks like a strange body of people with distinctly odd views about sex, and otherwise uninteresting.
but it gets worse
Dogmatics: nobody wants to be thought dogmatic any more - the word is associated with the arrogance of those who "know it all" in fields where such clarity is considered at best impossible and at worst, at least in the UK, impolite. Religion is just such a field! Dogmatics actually means just "teachings" - and if the Church has nothing to teach it has nothing to say (apart from "sorry", which we often need to say). Church Dogmatics is an exploration of the teachings of the church across ten thousand pages.
Should be fun - watch this space!!
Church: this summer we are witnessing the Anglican communion struggling not to blow itself to bits over homosexuality, not the most edifying spectacle even for those who know enough to understand why this is a necessary debate. From the outside the church looks like a strange body of people with distinctly odd views about sex, and otherwise uninteresting.
but it gets worse
Dogmatics: nobody wants to be thought dogmatic any more - the word is associated with the arrogance of those who "know it all" in fields where such clarity is considered at best impossible and at worst, at least in the UK, impolite. Religion is just such a field! Dogmatics actually means just "teachings" - and if the Church has nothing to teach it has nothing to say (apart from "sorry", which we often need to say). Church Dogmatics is an exploration of the teachings of the church across ten thousand pages.
Should be fun - watch this space!!
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