Church Dogmatics III/2

Summary: My real relationship to God, humanity, myself, and time is grounded in the man Jesus, who is the man for God, the man for others, the whole man, and the Lord of time.

Quote: “What God says and does in His relation to man is an unequivocal Yes to man, rooted only in God Himself and therefore pure, unassailable and immovable” (p. 187).

Notable section: §47—Barth’s breathtaking account of humanity in relation to time, according to which God graciously fixes the temporal boundaries of human existence.

Church Dogmatics III/1

Summary: Creation is the external and covenant the internal side of God’s gracious “Yes” to his creature in Jesus Christ.

Quote: “The fact that the covenant is the goal of creation is not something which is added later to the reality of the creature.... It already characterises creation itself and as such, and therefore the being and existence of the creature” (p. 231).

Notable section: §42—Barth’s account of the creator’s gracious “Yes” to his creature; through this “Yes,” creation is benefit, actualisation and justification.

Forthcoming book

Blackwell is now advertising the forthcoming volume by Alister E. McGrath, entitled The Order of Things: Explorations in Scientific Theology. This book includes an introductory chapter by me, entitled “Alister McGrath’s Scientific Theology”; and throughout the rest of the book McGrath develops various aspects of the dialogue between theology and science. You can see a full table of contents at the Blackwell website.

Pannenberg in Philadelphia

Recently I complained that none of the bibliobloggers in Philadelphia had posted anything about Pannenberg’s autobiographical paper at the AAR meeting. Happily, though, I came across this post from Charles Gutenson, one of Pannenberg’s former pupils. It doesn’t give much detail about the paper, but it does include some photos of Pannenberg and his friends at lunch.

Church Dogmatics II/2

Summary: God’s being is a free decision, and Jesus Christ is both subject and object of this decision: he is the electing God and the elect human being.

Quote: “The election of grace is the eternal beginning of all the ways and works of God in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ God in His free grace determines Himself for sinful man and sinful man for Himself. He therefore takes upon Himself the rejection of man with all its consequences, and elects man to participation in His own glory” (p. 94).

Notable section: §33,1-2—Barth’s magnificent and deeply moving account of the election of Jesus Christ.

Church Dogmatics II/1

Summary: God, who exists solely in his self-revealing act, makes himself known as the one who loves in freedom.

Quote: “We are now assuming that we have here [in the incarnation of Jesus Christ] the centre and goal of all God’s works, and therefore the hidden beginning of them all. We are also assuming that the prominent place occupied by this divine work has something corresponding to it in the essence of God, that the Son forms the centre of the Trinity, and that the essence of the divine being has, so to speak, its locus ... in His work, in the name and person of Jesus Christ” (p. 661).

Notable section: §31,3—Barth’s beautiful account of God’s glory and beauty.