Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Church Dogmatic delights

More or less every morning, before the day starts, I read a little from Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics. At the moment I’m working through ‘Die Lehre von der Versöhnung’ (IV, §§ 57-59) and I am finding it to be an utter delight. This is tonic for the soul, food for the mind, and sometimes I have had to put the book down and simply worship. Barth was a man seized by the Word of God in Christ, and reading the CD is as much a spiritual, as it is an intellectual exercise.

In trying to express the freedom of God’s grace, that God’s grace is entirely independent of human worth and thus the expression of God’s free choice, there exists a beautiful example of one of Barth’s ‘soul gush’ moments:
‘Man bedenke: Gott für uns Menschen! Gott in seiner Majestät, Gott der Vater, der Sohn und der Heilige Geist, Gott in der Fülle seines Gottseins, Gott in seiner Heiligkeit, Macht, Weisheit, Ewigkeit und Herrlichkeit, Gott, der sich selbst wahrhaftig genug ist, der keines anderen bedarf, der auch um die Liebe zu sein, keinen fremden Gesellen braucht: keinen, der mit ihm sein müsste, ohne den er nicht vollkommen wäre – Gott für uns Menschen!’ (KD. IV §57, 40)

5 Comments:

At 8/02/2006 12:19 PM, Anonymous Shane Clifton said...

Chris, you're weird. But if its any consolation, i am reading Augustine's Trinity for my devotionals!

In response to your question about my PhD thesis, it was on the topic of ecclesiology - a consideration of ecclesiological method and, thereafter, an analysis of the developing ecclesiology of the assemblies of god in australia. I actually discovered an online copy of my thesis the other day (it was a little surprising). The address is on the link i have attached to my name on this post.

 
At 8/02/2006 1:30 PM, Anonymous Ben Myers said...

What a beautiful, ravishing passage! This section you're reading is probably my favourite part of the whole CD -- there's nothing else quite like it.

 
At 8/03/2006 11:14 PM, Anonymous Chris Tilling said...

Shane, thanks! But reading Augustine is weirder!

Great, I just downloaded your doctoral work and added it to my Ibidem (NotaBene).

It looks fascinating. Ta.

Hi Ben,
Yes, 'beautiful' is surely the appropriate word. I'm reading this section on your recommendation, actually!

 
At 8/04/2006 8:14 AM, Anonymous byron smith said...

Translation please for those whose Deutsch is schlecht!

 
At 8/04/2006 8:16 AM, Anonymous byron smith said...

Here's the best my auto-translator could do:
One considers: God for us humans! God in its majesty, God the father, the son and the holy spirit, God in the abundance of its God unity, God in its holyness, power, wisdom, eternity and glory, God, that itself enough is truthful, which requires no different one, which associates to no other also around the love to be, needs: none, which would have to be with it, without which he would not be perfect - God for us humans!

 

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