becoming

I am happy that my little piece on Barth’s exegesis even got mentioned by Australian theologian Ben Myers in his blog Faith and Theology. Thanks a lot, Ben!

Remembering Barth on the 37th anniversary of his passing, I wrote a little précis and reflection on §59.2 of CD IV/1.

The Exegesis of Karl Barth In §59.2 of Church Dogmatics IV/1

The Theology of Karl Barth is essentially a retelling of the Gospel Story. Theology in itself is not the revelation; it is not even the extension of such revelation. It is at most the ordered human reflection on the revelation that happened in space and time. As a result, Barth follows neither the route of the metaphysical nor the existential approach, but rather focuses his theology on the Word of God. And he does not simply focus on any word of any god, but the One Word of God who takes the form of a human flesh (or more particularly a Jewish human flesh) in Jesus of Nazareth two thousand years ago. As the messenger to whom this message is committed is the Church, the basic and normative form of witness on which the Church is charged is the Bible. Hence exegesis becomes the foundation of his theology. And if one wishes to understand the thoughts of this great theologian, he or she must first examine the method behind his exegesis. [Read more]