Superb and timely. So much of the U.S. reception of Barth has fed a shallow biblicism--too readily coopted by the religious Right--or an easy transcendence of worldliness on what passes for a religious Left. This is the best of Barth's legacy brought home.
Are we zealous, or merely jealous? What is one’s own little puny, but graciously commanded by God, honoring of God name in this world of His, at best? “Small steps.” TCL How was God called upon at the White House that day by us as fellow human beings, with the stated petition, and praying in Jesus’ name? Barth paid considerable attention to the vocative address to God as “Father!” as “thanksgiving, praise and petition, “ in “The Children and Their Father” section of TCL, pp. 81-130, as we see from Luke 11:2 NRSV in Jesus training his disciples how to pray, at their request of Him, “When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. “ And, from the Bible, let’s also bother to read Romans 12:1-2. Barth liked that, though he knew it was a challenge to read the tBible, and not everyone agree with the way he read it and what he said about it. Simply put , as Barth puts it in CD 1.1, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, regarding our God talk and praxis, can measure things by Holy Scripture, by God’s own prophetic and apostolic human witness to Jesus Christ, as the One Word of God, (Barmen), and so we can look there regarding “apostasy.” A Christian sermon should start from our Holy Scriptures, and Christian confession of non-conformity, with it’s timely task, is different, but here with our author we are not without our Holy Scriptures, as the author does conclude by citing Romans 12-2, but how reliably? And so, we may turn first here back to our Holy Scripture, to Romans 12:1-2. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (NRSV primary reading) Transformation and holiness, holy transformation , renewal, discernment of what is good and acceptable and perfect. Note the apostle Paul, unashamed of the Gospel, or Himself as an apostle, rather, it is the world that puts him down that should be ashamed, called by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself here coming , in Roman’s to his hortatory “therefore.” Our prophetic and apostolic Christian church faith rests on the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The Christian Life is CD Chapter VII The Command of God the Reconciler and the author here overlooks that Barth spells out in CD IV, 4, the second section of TCL, that according to the testimony of Scripture, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is, in His historical person the One in whom the divine and human “change” has taken place where God’s faithfulness to human beings meets human faithfulness to God, and that by the Holy Spirit as, a second mystery, the beginning of that change comes to each of us as well. The author notes the eschatological but not the Christological context in which Barth spoke of the ethical relevance of the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer. (241) Barth does say for the Christian that the Word of God does have precedence over these factors, but as they are not only darkness, but also light, and also that as we ourselves are still in present world, not devils but not angels either, the Word of God will direct us to this or that factor, in “little steps.” Barth was not a stateless person, for example. Barth was adamant about speaking about both the knowledge and ignorance of God in the human world, the church and the individual Christian, and light and darkness in the natural world, but not in our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as True God and True Human Being. “The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1) Was some of the Christian church happier with other US presidents? The present one is baptized as a Christian, Barth did have something to say about baptism in IV 4, a section of TCL, The Beginning of the Christian Life.
"Apostasy, Now!" depends on Karl Barth's book The Christian Life. There Barth attends to "lordless powers" that can "rule man instead of serving him." (p. 224). After describing Leviathan and Mammon, Barth moves on to ideology. His two-page excursus on ideology (pp. 226-7) -- noting how an ideology usually has a name that ends in "ism," a collection of slogans, and some useful propaganda -- is compelling and relevant for our consideration. If the Trump administration touts an ideology, it must be said that those who oppose the Trump administration at every step also possess an ideology. Unfortunately, Barth reminds us, when ideology is held too tightly, it itself begins to take over the one holding it. In that way, ideology can rule man. As a lordless power, an ideology thereby replaces, in one's mind, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That, despite temporary appearances, will never happen. Through it all, Jesus Christ is Lord!
Superb and timely. So much of the U.S. reception of Barth has fed a shallow biblicism--too readily coopted by the religious Right--or an easy transcendence of worldliness on what passes for a religious Left. This is the best of Barth's legacy brought home.
Somehow we see here also, in an apparent reception of Barth’s legacy, a superficial attentiveness to the Bible, do we not?
Are we zealous, or merely jealous? What is one’s own little puny, but graciously commanded by God, honoring of God name in this world of His, at best? “Small steps.” TCL How was God called upon at the White House that day by us as fellow human beings, with the stated petition, and praying in Jesus’ name? Barth paid considerable attention to the vocative address to God as “Father!” as “thanksgiving, praise and petition, “ in “The Children and Their Father” section of TCL, pp. 81-130, as we see from Luke 11:2 NRSV in Jesus training his disciples how to pray, at their request of Him, “When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name. “ And, from the Bible, let’s also bother to read Romans 12:1-2. Barth liked that, though he knew it was a challenge to read the tBible, and not everyone agree with the way he read it and what he said about it. Simply put , as Barth puts it in CD 1.1, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, regarding our God talk and praxis, can measure things by Holy Scripture, by God’s own prophetic and apostolic human witness to Jesus Christ, as the One Word of God, (Barmen), and so we can look there regarding “apostasy.” A Christian sermon should start from our Holy Scriptures, and Christian confession of non-conformity, with it’s timely task, is different, but here with our author we are not without our Holy Scriptures, as the author does conclude by citing Romans 12-2, but how reliably? And so, we may turn first here back to our Holy Scripture, to Romans 12:1-2. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (NRSV primary reading) Transformation and holiness, holy transformation , renewal, discernment of what is good and acceptable and perfect. Note the apostle Paul, unashamed of the Gospel, or Himself as an apostle, rather, it is the world that puts him down that should be ashamed, called by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself here coming , in Roman’s to his hortatory “therefore.” Our prophetic and apostolic Christian church faith rests on the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The Christian Life is CD Chapter VII The Command of God the Reconciler and the author here overlooks that Barth spells out in CD IV, 4, the second section of TCL, that according to the testimony of Scripture, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself is, in His historical person the One in whom the divine and human “change” has taken place where God’s faithfulness to human beings meets human faithfulness to God, and that by the Holy Spirit as, a second mystery, the beginning of that change comes to each of us as well. The author notes the eschatological but not the Christological context in which Barth spoke of the ethical relevance of the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer. (241) Barth does say for the Christian that the Word of God does have precedence over these factors, but as they are not only darkness, but also light, and also that as we ourselves are still in present world, not devils but not angels either, the Word of God will direct us to this or that factor, in “little steps.” Barth was not a stateless person, for example. Barth was adamant about speaking about both the knowledge and ignorance of God in the human world, the church and the individual Christian, and light and darkness in the natural world, but not in our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, as True God and True Human Being. “The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1) Was some of the Christian church happier with other US presidents? The present one is baptized as a Christian, Barth did have something to say about baptism in IV 4, a section of TCL, The Beginning of the Christian Life.
"Apostasy, Now!" depends on Karl Barth's book The Christian Life. There Barth attends to "lordless powers" that can "rule man instead of serving him." (p. 224). After describing Leviathan and Mammon, Barth moves on to ideology. His two-page excursus on ideology (pp. 226-7) -- noting how an ideology usually has a name that ends in "ism," a collection of slogans, and some useful propaganda -- is compelling and relevant for our consideration. If the Trump administration touts an ideology, it must be said that those who oppose the Trump administration at every step also possess an ideology. Unfortunately, Barth reminds us, when ideology is held too tightly, it itself begins to take over the one holding it. In that way, ideology can rule man. As a lordless power, an ideology thereby replaces, in one's mind, the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That, despite temporary appearances, will never happen. Through it all, Jesus Christ is Lord!