I love reading Barth. That's no surprise.
So I thought this brief introduction might be of help in getting the gist of Dogmatics:
So I thought this brief introduction might be of help in getting the gist of Dogmatics:
I/1: Before I ever thought of God, before I opened my mouth to speak, God is, God speaks, and what God says is "God!"
I/2: God's mighty Word is humbly hidden in the human flesh of Jesus, the human words of scripture, and the boredom of the Sunday sermon.
II/1: God's friendly Word is unconditioned by anything in us. That's why God is better than anyone, because God is free to love everyone.
II/2: Why is God so good at freely loving us? Because God had so much practice before we ever existed.
III/1: We were summoned into being by God's freely loving Word. From that day on, God has spared no expense in trying to befriend us.
III/2: Our nature fits God like a glove: God wore it first then let us try it on, and Jesus shows us how to wear it right.
III/3: God's freely loving Word holds the world in being and keeps at bay the dreadful power of nonbeing. (P.S. There are angels.)
III/4: How good it is to be a creature! To be freely ourselves, never more or less, within the constraints that God has lovingly set for us.
IV/1: When I saw how Jesus used his deity to become small and humble for my sake, it took my breath away (and then my pride).
IV/2: When I saw Jesus triumphant in his humanity, it roused me from a deadly boredom: I became freely and fully human, almost a god.
IV/3: The human messenger is the divine Message: Jesus, the living truth that unmasks my self-deception and makes me a disciple of truth.
IV/4: So cheer up! God's faithfulness frees us for faith. God's loving address frees us to answer. God's gift frees us for gratitude.
V: And the rest, my friends, is Mozart.