Say JD - Isn't this the kind of monologue you've been
complaining about?
On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 03:15:55 -0400 [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
I have included (below) a quotation regarding Karl Barth. Since he has been thoroughly condemned as a raving liberal here on TT, I thought it only fair to give him reprieve from time to time. Even a cursory reading of his works presents us with a man who controlled by the biblical message as well as the Living Christ.He neither regarded himself as a "liberal" nor did he feel the biblical message to have been an extension of worldly culture. Paul speaks of being in the world but not of the world. Barth was very concerned that the church catholic did not fall prey to an opposing attraction to the world.As a result, he found it necessary to oppose Hitler - in the world in which he (Barth) found himself. We are to be motivated by the same Message and passion that controlled these latter day saints. If we are not united in those elements, we have no attachment to one another at all.I must point out the difference between the Prescribed Message and the Living Word of God. In the first place, there is no such thing as a prescription Message -- full of law and order; a document meant to replace the stone tablets, full of "new" law and formula, offering unity to all who agree on its content. In the second place, the Living Word of God has much more to do with the Living Word of God than with the biblical message. To be sure, the biblical message is a part of what we call the Living Word, but it certainly is not its full definition.If Christ continues to live, His heart, mind and soul are available to us this day. It is our choice to take on His person, to be of His mind, to express His giftedness in us, and to share the moment -- whether teaching in a prison somewhere in mid-America or picking up sticks in storm damaged Mississippi.We are to be defined by the LIVING Word of God, not the world nor its Prescriptive Message(s).How will each of us begin the day called tomorrow? In prayer filled with a passion to [once again] to be like Him or will we pick up those sticks thrown at us (from whatever source) and use them as ammunition for the approaching fight - beginning with the new dawn.Barth did not believe that a working theology was possible apart from the passion of prayer. Heck, life is wholly defamed without this very passion. When Paul asked that we "pray without ceasing," I believe that he had in mind this very passion. Words will fail us and cannot be what Paul had in mind when he spoke of unceasing prayer. How such works in your life is a part of the Living Word at work within you. Personal discovery verses a prescribed theology on this point is what is demanded.Have a great day - tomorrow.JDKarl Barth, b. Basel, Switzerland, May 10, 1886, d. Dec. 9, 1968, is considered by some the greatest Protestant theologian of the 20th century and possibly the greatest since the Reformation. More than anyone else, Barth inspired and led the renaissance of theology that took place from about 1920 to 1950. He studied at the universities of Bern, Berlin, Tubingen, and Marburg and held pastorates in Switzerland between 1909 and 1921. During this time, he became known as a radical critic both of the prevailing liberal theology and of the social order. Liberal theology, Barth believed, had accommodated Christianity to modern culture. The crisis of World War I was in part a symptom of this unholy alliance. In his famous commentary on Romans (1919), Barth stressed the discontinuity between the Christian mes sage and the world. God is the wholly other; he is known only in his revelation; he is not the patron saint of culture, but its judge.
