bits of barth
Barth CD I/2 10:47 pm
not suited for the kingdom? strong words: http://goo.gl/5Qvfz
@epaga he's complex. he asserts himself in one direction and then another, without defense or resolution. Favors proof by assertion.
"for us, and therefore against us... the work of the kindness we cannot grasp": http://goo.gl/Tf3qJ
“@epaga: @pavi would love to hear your thoughts on some of the [quotes]” for now immersing, listening... to truly hear. in time...
"It is a great affliction when our right to have our own desires & to pursue them is so radically questioned & finally taken away"
for us, & therefore...
Barth, CD 1/2 p.278
But where the Word of God is master by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, there enters in an interest or concern which does not allow any rivals, for the simple reason that in the Word of God it is always a matter of our own interest and concern. But it is our own interest and concern not as seen from our standpoint, but as seen from the opposite but beneficent standpoint of the wisdom of God, as judged by the righteousness of God, as adopted by the goodness of God. That is the work of God: the work of God upon us: for us and therefore against us: the work of the kindness which we cannot grasp, which we have outraged, which does good to us, as to those who always do evil. Where it is heard as such, there is still an active will to assert and help ourselves, to maintain and justify and advertise ourselves, but it has been fundamentally broken and its vital power destroyed... If that means humiliation, it also means comfort. If it means Law, it also means Gospel. It is a great affliction when our right to have our own desires and to pursue them is so radically questioned and finally taken away. But, of course, it is an even greater help, when the common necessity of worrying about our own situation is so radically relativised and in fact basically set aside.
"For us, and therefore against us" - so much wisdom in six words.
not suited?
Barth, CD I/2, p.277
Further, we have to note that this following is distinguished from an arbitrary action, like imitation, by the fact that it is conditioned by the call of Jesus. It is therefore a Messianic gift. The individual who decides ("Lord I would follow thee") to tread this way on his own initiative, at once proves that he is not suited for the kingdom of God (Lk. 9:61f.) Finally, the frequent inter-relating of the idea of following with the idea of self-denial ought also to prevent us from thinking that this is the kind of formation and direction which a man can undertake of himself.
Strong words.
bits of barth
Barth CD I/2 8:21 am
"God comes forward to be man's Saviour. This presupposes... that man cannot be helped in any other way"
"It is not merely that man lacks something which he ought to be or to have or to be capable of in relation to God. He lacks everything"
"The few that find this way... are those who are chosen by God and who are therefore enabled to find what the many do not find"
"Blessed are the poor in spirit... this poverty, true & saving despair, is the gift of the Holy Spirit, the work of Jesus Christ"
"this has nothing to do with a magical invasion of the interrelated totality of our psycho-psychical life by supernatural forces" huh?
"the need for God is known only by the children of God"
"our participation in [the work of God] does not depend upon our fitness for this work... It rests upon the forgiveness of sins."
"only one thing is required of us. As those who cannot do it of ourselves... we have to participate when the Word does it"
"This burden... of my own & others' sins, does not lie upon me. It lies solely and entirely upon Jesus Christ, upon the Word of God"
(2) "... completely himself and not a cast, and yet completely represents the form and the way of the master and not a caricature"
(1) "no other master has the power to subordinate another man to his direction and leadership in such a way that the latter is ..."
no other master...
Barth: CD I/2 §16.2
To have our master unavoidably in Jesus Christ is to be subjected to a definite formation and direction. We can adapt ourselves to other masters. We can imitate them. We can model ourselves after them, or even on the caricature of them. No other master has the power to subordinate another man to his direction and leadership in such a way that the latter is completely himself and not a cast, and yet completely represents the form and the way of the master and not a caricature... The formation and direction of a man by the Word of God, which becomes a reality with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, has nothing to do with imitation. We must again insist that under this formation and direction, man remains the man he is. His own nature and thinking and willing and feeling, both in general and in detail, is not lost. But in the light of this his own being, he remains a sinner before God. Yet this very being of his as a sinner before God is subjected to the Word of God, and is therefore formed and directed by that Word. And because the subordination and therefore the formation and direction are perfect, there takes place at this point what imitation intends but can never achieve: the master acquires a pupil, a servant, a scholar, a follower, in whom he finds himself again, and in whom, accordingly he, the master, can also be found again by others.
How perfectly put, how beautifully understood!
exceptionalist justice
NT Wright, on recent events:
Consider the following scenario. A group of Irish republican terrorists carries out a bombing raid in London. People are killed and wounded. The group escapes, first to Ireland, then to the US, where they disappear into the sympathetic hinterland of a country where IRA leaders have in the past been welcomed at the White House. Britain cannot extradite them, because of the gross imbalance of the relevant treaty. So far, this seems plausible enough.But now imagine that the British government, seeing the murderers escape justice, sends an aircraft carrier (always supposing we've still got any) to the Nova Scotia coast. From there, unannounced, two helicopters fly in under the radar to the Boston suburb where the terrorists are holed up. They carry out a daring raid, killing the (unarmed) leaders and making their escape. Westminster celebrates; Washington is furious.
What's the difference between this and the recent events in Pakistan? Answer: American exceptionalism. America is subject to different rules to the rest of the world. By what right? Who says?
via guardian.co.uk.
I think Wright is wrong when he implies that US:Pakistan::UK:US
Well, perhaps not wrong... mere exaggeration?
Or perhaps I don't understand the realities of the IRA when compared to al-Qa'ida.
In any case, he makes a depressing point. Who decides what is terrorism, and what is justifiable action against it? I find myself in agreement with the action taken by the US in Abbottabad (for complicated reasons, some of which have to do with the fact that I'm Indian and grew up with a certain unfortunate perspective on Pakistan...), while grieving the real complexity of evil and our hopelessly wrong, inherently subverted & evil-multiplying attempts to defeat violence with more violence.
Revelation, reason, wisdom & love have long since departed this discourse, and all that's left is the rhetoric of power, politics, deception & hatred.
מרנא תא
bits of barth
Barth CD I/2 10:13 am
"the virgin birth at the opening & the empty tomb at the close... bear witness that this life... is marked off from all the rest"
"[the church] is not created, formed & introduced by individual men on their own initiative, authority & insight"
"in face of such a church [man initiated] we... must appeal to the free grace of God to be made blessed outside of it"
"a church of that description is not the Church but the work of sin, of apostasy in the Church"
"with God all things are possible, and with us at least very many" barthian humor?
"the revelation of God in its subjective reality [is] the existence of men who have been led by God himself to a certain conviction"
"the work of the Holy Spirit is that our blind eyes are opened &... in thankful self-surrender we recognize & acknowledge it: Amen"
Barth is either impossibly narrow or impossibly broad. can't yet figure it out. no worries, still have 8000p left. all in good time.
maybe that's where wisdom lies. in the tension between impossibly narrow & impossibly broad. or the harmony thereof. Paul, anyone?
"when we ask how a man comes to hear the Word of God, to believe in Christ... at once we must turn and point to the inconceivable..."
"the Word creates the fact that we hear the Word. Jesus Christ creates the fact that we believe in Jesus Christ"
"true preaching from the Holy Spirit will not consist in pointing to our own or other men's seizure, but to the divine seizing"