This "true profundity", as Nimmo calls it in the following lucid excerpt, is why I appreciate Barth's theology as much as I do. There is no other God except the God revealed in Jesus Christ. This is the good news of the Gospel. God is truly with us and for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is times when you stumble across passages like these when study quickly becomes doxology:
"Barth's actualistic ontology goes far beyond the dynamism of God as a Being in act, however: the true profundity of his actualistic ontology lies in the statement that God in Godself is 'not another than He is in His works'. The true identity of God, in other words, is revealed in the works of God. In the act of revelation, posits Barth, God declares the reality of God: 'not only His reality for us - certainly that - but at the same time His own, inner, proper reality, behind which and above which there is no other'. The ways and works of God thus correspond perfectly to the being of God - the essence of God to the existence of God."
- Paul Nimmo, Being in Action: The Theological Shape of Barth's Ethical Vision, 7.
2 comments:
I'm reading Nimmo now, and when I hit that part, all my reading of McCormack clicked solidly into place. It's a nice, concise explanation!
You're doomed to be a Barthian; you are in the Barthian vortex, PTS ;-). That's okay, I masquerade as a Torrancean, but everyone knows that's just code for Barthian ;-).
Post a Comment