bits of barth
Barth CD I/1
"...inscrutability, hiddenness is of the very essence of Him who is called God in the Bible"
"when the Bible gives an account of revelation it means to narrate history"
"the threefold yet single lordship of God as Father, Son and Spirit is the root of the doctrine of the Trinity"
"The situation would be hopeless if it were our task here to say what is really meant by 'person' in the doctrine of the Trinity"
"revealer, revelation, being revealed; holiness, mercy, love; good friday, easter, pentecost; creator, reconciler, redeemer..."
"none of the Three may be known without the other Two but each of the Three only with the other Two"
"[the Trinity] ...we should not be surprised at the incomprehensibilty in which it remains for us as it becomes comprehensible to us"
"God is unknown as our Father, as the Creator, to the degree that He is not made known by Jesus"
"Jesus did not proclaim the familiar Creator God & interpret Him by the unfamiliar name of Father. He revealed [His] unknown Father"
"God [as] Father denotes the mode of being of God in which He is the Author of His other modes of being"
"the Son is from the Father & the Spirit is from the Father & the Son, while the Father is from Himself alone"
"the Father is not only God the Creator, but with the Son and the Spirit He is also God the Reconciler & God the Redeemer"
"It would be just as improper to say that God the Father died as to say that Jesus or the Spirit of Pentecost created heaven & earth"
"this Father of His is God. He who reveals Him, then, reveals God. But who can reveal God except God Himself?"
"only the son who is already recalling his father's house knows that he is a lost son"
"reconciliation or revelation is not creation or a continuation of creation but rather an inconceivably new work above and beyond..."
"Jesus is the revelation of the Father and the revelation of the Father is Jesus" word.
"As we owe life to God the Creator, so we owe eternal life to God the Reconciler"
"We believe in the one Lord Jesus Christ. He has a claim on us and control over us. He commands and rules"
(3) "...in the process in which creation & sin... are not interfused but opposed even as they exist together"
(2) "He has come into being as the worm has come into being... He has come into being as man comes into being"
(1) "begotten... He has come into being in the context of sex and the nexus of the species..."
"it is not true that these names [Father & Son] are just freely chosen and in the last analysis meaningless symbols"
"We can speak of the truth only in untruth. We do not know what we are saying when we call God Father & Son"
"He is the eternal Word of the Father who speaks from all eternity, the eternal thought of the Father who thinks from all eternity"
"The Holy Spirit is the authorisation to speak about Christ... He is the summons to the Church to minister the Word"
"The Holy Spirit is the Lord who sets us free and by receiving Him we become the children of God"
"Even in receiving the Holy Spirit man remains man, the sinner sinner"
"eternity comes first and then time, therefore the future comes first and then the present..."
"God remains the Lord even and precisely when He comes into our hearts as His own gift, even and precisely when He fills us"
"No other intercedes with Him on our behalf except Himself. No other intercedes with us on His behalf except again Himself"
"The Holy Spirit is the fellowship, the act of communion, of the Father & the Son"
"The Holy Spirit is the love in which the Father loves the Son, and in which the Son loves the Father"
"[God] is the Father of the Son in such a way that with the Son He brings forth the Spirit, love, and is in Himself the Spirit, love"
Paul Lehmann: the angels are alone among God's creatures in having the time to read Barth's Dogmatics. one down, twelve to go.
