Tuesday 6 December 2005

Church Dogmatics: summary

Here’s my single-sentence summary of the whole Church Dogmatics:

God speaks a free and loving “Yes” to Jesus Christ; the event of this “Yes” is God’s trinitarian life, and its corresponding echo is a creative and redemptive “Yes” to humanity, so that God’s relationship to humanity is an echo and an analogy of God’s relationship to Jesus Christ.

9 Comments:

Jim said...

Sounds like universalism...
;-)

Ben Myers said...

Well, it's definitely "universal". But since God's Yes is a free Yes, for Barth there can never be a universalism!

Alastair said...

Very good attempt, and I always thought Barth was a universalist anyway!

Unknown said...

Universalism as in...
in the end, all sin is dealt with completely and when Jesus said, that when He is lifted up, He will draw all men to Himself, He really meant all men.

And that is bad because....?

Anonymous said...

That's bad because Jesus didn't say he would draw "all men without exception." He said he would draw all men. Considering that Jesus is recorded as saying only 6 Chapters earlier "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." A few verses earlier he says this also, "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

So he states that those who are drawn and those who believe both will be raised on the last day. Therefore it follows that not all will be drawn otherwise all would also believe.

So based on that information the idea of Universalism is incorrect. And the interpretation of "all" in John 12:32 is more likely refering to all kinds of men as opposed to just Jews.

Ben said...

Guys. . . Please let me remind you. . . This is a summary, not the entirety of Barth. I can assure you that Karl Barth never advocated universalism.

If you should read his view on election, you will realize that universalism is the furthest thing from his theology.

Again, it's a summary. . .

Anonymous said...

I am wondering why some reference was not made to Barth's own summary of his work -- "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

Unknown said...

thank you for a useful summary. i think barth mentioned once that moltmann might be a possible legacy to his thought

Anonymous said...

Barth claimed that none of us are able to place limits on the scope of the grace and mercy of God. Who is to say that God has withheld his mercy from some and given it to others. If we truly see God as a merciful God and abounding in grace then it follows that he wishes for the salvation of all of His creation. Barth believes that God will, in the end, redeem His entire creation. He refrains from saying this precisely as to do so would define God when, in fact, we cannot know with certainty the purposes of God.

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