When looking at the common theme that Barth develops in God Here and Now, it becomes apparent for the need of congregation to justify, ratify, and promote the Bible as the living word of God. When and where the Bible constitutes its own authority and significance, it mediates the very presence of God through the congregation. Encountering this presence in the Church, among those whose lives presume living through the Bible’s power and meaning. Barth states that the Bible must become God's Word and this occurs only when God wills to address us in and through it. The Christ-event is God's definitive self-disclosure, while Scripture and preaching are made to correspond to him as a faithful witness becomes the perfect statement according to Barth (Barth, 2003, p. 61).
Barth’s opening thesis is a view that everything that can be known with confidence about God or divine things is known only or primarily by faith, as opposed to a coherent or cognitive. In addition, existential, in the sense that Barth affirms that scripture has an objective significance, even before considering it through faith and reason. According to Barth, “This circumstance is the simple fact that in the congregation of Jesus Christ, the Bible has specific authority and significance” (p. 56) and without the congregation it becomes only historical. It becomes important to uphold and defend the Bible’s authority and the power does not come from any simple measure employed by us individually. It is up to the congregation to openly confess the analytical propositions without fear and become actively engaged in the faith and obedience of which it asks (p. 56).
Barth has an approach to the question of the bible’s authority from a biblical and gospel-centered perspe...
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...unter with Scripture, there is a personal presence of the Holy Spirit in leadership as witnessing as to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Transparency exists personally as a Christian when witnessing and teaching through the authority of Holy Scripture. This becomes solely dependent on the relationship that exists with the congregation and the Bible being the solitary authority. The Bible then becomes the testimony or witness to Jesus Christ and its authority is in this witness.
Works Cited
Barth, K. (2003). Barth : God Here and Now. New York, NY: Routledge Classics.
Congdon, D. W. (2010). 12 the Word as Event: Barth and Bultmann on Scripture. Retrieved from www.academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/658913/The_Word_as_Event_Barth_and_Bultmann_on_Scripture
Entwistle, D. N. (2010). Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.
Dorothee Solle and Karl Barth hold different ideas about God’s power that allow Solle to claim “God needs us” and Barth to claim that God has absolute independence and sovereignty. In the following essay, I will explain Solle’s reasoning behind her understanding of God’s relationship with humanity before pointing out Barth’s divergent position and concluding with
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Damrosch, David, and David L. Pike, eds. "The Gospel According to Luke." The Longman Anothology of World Literature. Compact ed. New York: Pearson, 2008. 822-33. Print.
Harris, Stephen. Understanding The Bible. 6 ed. New York City: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2002. Print.
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Carson, D. A., and Douglas J. Moo. An introduction to the New Testament. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2005
Answering these questions is the purpose of this essay. I begin by arguing that the Bible cannot be adequately understood independent of its historical context. I concede later that historical context alone however is insufficient, for the Bible is a living-breathing document as relevant to us today as it was the day it was scribed. I conclude we need both testimonies of God at work to fully appreciate how the Bible speaks to us.