Dogmatics is the
critical science, which task is to provide appropriate and accurate language
when speaking about the triune God and the proclamation of the Gospel. This science can only be fully studied in the
context of the Church, thus leading to the title Church Dogmatics. Barth uses
this science, or Dogmatics, to search and discover truths concerning the
Apostles Creed. Dogmatics is always necessary according to Barth because,
“Dogmatics is the testing of Church doctrine and proclamation[1]”
also “The face that the Church’s Proclamation is at danger of going astray.[2]”
Dogmatics seeks to prevent doctrinal mishaps from occurring among Holy
Scriptures, Old and New Testament or among the context of Church thought.
Barth begins with faith which is to utter the words “I
believe”. He links faith to three categories trust, knowledge and confession. Faith
as trust, is concerned with meeting Christ. For Barth, this meeting is one where
God is the object of faith and the believer the subject. This is what it means
to have faith as trust. Trust, is God as the object of faith. As Barth explains,
“I learn that by thinking of Him and looking to Him, my interests are also best
proved for.[3]”
Realizing that God is the source of Christian faith is precedent for the
Christian to say, “I believe”. It provides confidence in the Word so much so
that the hearer is unable to withdraw from it.
Faith as knowledge is what is entailed in the Apostles
Creed. That is, where the Creed is uttered and confessed knowledge is created.
Therefore the act of faith is also an act of knowledge. Christian faith is
concerned with an illumination of reason. When man attempts to know by his own
power he will always fall short of God. Of course it is God who is pleased to
present Himself to man. Faith as knowledge
is related to God’s Logos; the truth and wisdom gained through Jesus Christ. Hence
this knowledge is strictly a logical matter. This truth and knowledge must constantly
be weighed by God’s Word, Holy Scripture. Truth, knowledge, and Holy Scripture
must always be confirmed by one another.
Faith as confession, being as a result of truth and
knowledge, confirms that one cannot be kept silent when captured by the Holy
Spirit. That is, this truth and knowledge must be confessed and proclaimed in
the Church and to the world. Barth states, “He who believes in this God cannot
wish to hide this God’s gift, this God’s love, this God’s comfort and light, to
hide his trust in His Word and His knowledge.[4]”
Faith must always lead to expression.
He then explains what it means to say, “I believe in
God”. To add God to the end of that
confession one must view God in the highest. Barth reminds his readers that God
is the Object of the faith. This
proves a very necessary description of God as Barth aims to insert the proper
view of the Christian God and differentiate from other views of what define
gods. The Christian faith does not speak of a God who is found in a series of
other gods. Thus “The God of the Christian
Confession is, in distinction from all gods, not a found or invented God or one
at last and at the end discovered by man.[5]”
The Christian God therefore exists in a completely different way from that
which is elsewhere called divine.[6]
Once we realize this we can laugh at those other attempts at the divine
because, “Once the true God has been seen, the gods collapse into, dust, and He
remains the only One.[7]”
The remainder of the book breaks down the Creed line by
line. Barth examines these lines in the context of the foundation Dogmatics,
faith as trust, knowledge, and confession. God the Father is the first member
of the Trinity with the same hold as the Son and Holy Spirit. Father is not a
title that man puts on God to make sense of God from a human perspective, but
it derives from His divine nature by which we get earthly Fatherhood. He thus,
is the object and we are subject. Because of His Fatherhood he became creator
making man the creature. It is by God’s free work that the creature is given
the gift of being called Children of God. Only then can we participate in the
work that is being done for us.
The following chapter breaks down the word “Almighty”
which discusses God who has everything, determines all things and is the
measure of all things real and possible. God is not dead but Almighty and
active in the world. God the Creator of Heaven and Earth aims to make a clear distinction
between the Creator and creature heaven and arth. On one hand, the Creator who
created all things is infallible and un-fathomable. In the same sense He
created heaven, which is not able to fully understood by mankind. On the other
hand man is fallible and fathomable here for all to see, along with the earth.
Barth directs his readers away from creation as a myth. He views Genesis 1, 2,
and the rest of scripture for that matter as historical knowledge. Barth then
moves to the center of the Creed Jesus Christ,[8]
Barth explains these sections in details matching the
miracles of Creation with the miracle of the Virgin birth while explaining the
historical significance of the lines “suffered under Pontius Pilate”. Barth
believes Jesus suffered his whole life which is contrary to Calvin’s belief of
Jesus only suffering at the end of his life. The Cross is not to be taken abstractly
but to be view in the light of humiliation and reconciliation. What befalls
Christ ought to befall us[9].
On the third day He rose again beginning a new story of man. The ascension, which
completes God’s work sealing a place in heaven for God’s Children and asserts
Jesus as judge who will judge the quick and the dead bringing a new time for
man.
Barth explains belief in the Holy Ghost also matching the
word of the Spirit with the miracle of creation and the virgin birth. They are
all equally outstanding and essential to the Christian life. He concludes the
outline of Dogmatics with the Holy Catholick Church in which Jesus Christ is
the Head and the Church is helpless without Him. The Church is called to take
the message of the forgiveness of sins and resurrection out to the world with
all urgency.
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[1]
P.13
[2] P.
12
[3]
P.16
[4] P.
30
[5] P.
36
[6] In
my words, “They’re not even on His level”!!!!
[7]
P.40
[8] Who
was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under
Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The
third day he rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on
the right hand of God the Father Almighty; From thence he shall come to judge
the quick and the dead.
[9]P.
117
