Archive for the ‘Church’ Category
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
The Church should fear God and not fear the world. But only if and as it fears God need it cease to fear the world. If it does not fear God, then it is not helped at all but genuinely endangered if it fears the world, listens to its oppositions, considers its attitude, and accepts all kinds of responsibilities toward it, no matter how necessary and justified may be the criticism it receives from this quarter. CD, I/1, pp. 73-74
Fear, the most basic and pervasive of human emotions, operates in two modes. Fear of the first order manifests itself as a strong, unpleasant emotion caused by realized or anticipated danger or dread. Whether rational or irrational, founded or unfounded, fear in this form is a terror, horror, or panic that captures us and puts everything into question. (more…)
Tags: Barth, fear, Hope, terror
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Sunday, January 1st, 2012
Reading CD atop Pinnacle Mtn, Arkansas
Church Dogmatics, Volume 1, Part 1 is a revision of Barth’s first offer of dogmatics. The Doctrine of the Word of God, published in 1927, was the first volume of what was to be Christian Dogmatics in Outline. In the Preface of the 1932 rewrite, Barth explains why he had “to begin again at the beginning, saying the same thing, but in a very different way” (xi). He had done something of the same with his Romerbrief (1919, revised 1921), seeking to overturn nineteenth century theological liberalism. In his own estimation, the first go at dogmatics had not gone far enough and was in need of a revision based upon what he had learned “both historically and materially” (xi) in the intervening years.
Among the changes, Barth mentions … (more…)
Tags: Barth, Dogmatics, Revision
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Monday, December 26th, 2011
Dec. 1955, Source: Karl Barth Archive, Basel, photo by Maria Netter
As you and I anticipate a reading journey through Church Dogmatics in 2012, it would be helpful to know something of its author, Karl Barth (1886-1968). Born in Basel, Switzerland, Barth spent the majority of his childhood in Berne where his father, Fritz Barth, was Professor of Church History and New Testament Exegesis. At age 16, Barth decided to become a theologian and began his studies at Berne in 1904 (age 18). In addition to Berne, he studied in Berlin, Tübingen, and Marburg. In 1909 he served as an apprentice pastor in Geneva, and from 1911 to 1921 he was pastor of a small church in the village of Safenwil. While at Safenwil, he wrote his Epistle to the Romans (Der Römerbrief, 1919, rev. 1921) marking a decisive departure from the thought of his teachers (Adolf von Harnack, Wilhelm Herrmann) and German Protestant Liberal theology of the day. As Professor of theology in Göttingen (1921-25), Münster (1925-30), and Bonn (1930-35), Barth offered an alternative theological vision for the church. Because he was an outspoken critic of the Nazi party and refused to swear allegiance to Adolf Hitler, he was forced to leave Germany in 1935. The Barmen Declaration (1934) of the German Confessing Church was chiefly the work of Barth. Leaving Germany, he returned to Switzerland and became Professor in Basel (1935–62). Barth married Nelly Hoffmann in 1913 and had five children (four sons and a daughter). He died in Basel on December 10, 1968. (more…)
Tags: Barth, Dogmatics
Posted in Barth, Church, Formation | 2 Comments »
Sunday, June 26th, 2011
On April 5, 2009, Giampaolo Giuliani, a researcher attached to Italy’s National Institute of Nuclear Physics, announced that an earthquake was imminent. Emissions of higher than usual amounts of radon gas detected at four meters he had placed around his hometown of L’Aquila convinced him that an earthquake of at least a 4.0 magnitude would occur within 48 hours. Naturally he began warning the people of L’Aquila through the Internet. Authorities decided he was a contentious crackpot causing unnecessary panic, so they placed him under an injunction that prevented him from issuing public alerts. Authorities even removed notices he posted on the Internet and threatened him with imprisonment if he reposted or made public announcements. Restricted in what he could do, Giuliani went house-to-house warning neighbors, friends and family. Once night came, he, with his immediate family, went to bed fully dressed, prepared to escape the anticipated earthquake and to help those who would survive. Just before daylight he awoke to a series of violent quakes that were not a 4.0 magnitude but 7.0. By the end of the day, a total of 308 people had died and 80,000 were left without shelter.[i]
To the inhabitants of L’Aquila, life had appeared stable and safe, calm and certain, and yet forces in the depths of the earth were shifting in opposing directions and tension that had been building for some time suddenly erupted into a massive earthquake. Surely they thought, ‘How could such a cataclysmic event happen in our town?’ (more…)
Tags: agitators, Church, Hope, Mission, quakes, security, warnings
Posted in Church, Hope, Mission | 1 Comment »
Saturday, March 26th, 2011
For those of us who are ministers and leaders in the local church, there is a long list of things that we do. Included are activities such as preaching and teaching, praying for the distressed and sick, visiting people in the hospital, providing activities for children and students, planning worship, dealing with personnel matters, creating opportunities for fellowship, managing finances, and the list goes on and on. While good, worthy, and necessary, these ‘must do’s’ can at times become ends in themselves, unless broader and ultimate purposes are kept clearly in view. (more…)
Tags: Bonhoeffer, Church, culture, Formation, world
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Monday, February 7th, 2011
Conversations concerning the church seem to be increasing, especially when they are about her nature or essence. This growing discussion, centered on what the church is in herself and what constitutes her nature, evidences an awareness that how the church imagines herself determines most everything else about her – how she acts and reacts, spends her money, organizes her corporate life, interfaces with the wider culture, etc. So, whether the church defines herself as house, organic, emergent, or aqua does makes a difference. (more…)
Tags: Brunner, missio Dei, missional
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Thursday, January 20th, 2011
The world as we know it is rapidly changing. Current economic, demographic, technological, and political changes can cause our heads to spin. Yet, one change that may not be as obvious is that the American context is becoming less and less Christian, especially in the way Christianity has been traditionally understood and followed. People are asking such questions as “Why bother with church?” “What has the Christian faith to do with the real problems of life?” In some quarters, the questions are not as benign. These people aggressively ask, “Why are Christians so bigoted, narrow-minded, and anti-everything?” Studies show that while there is a growing interest in matters spiritual, Christianity and the church are increasingly viewed as irrelevant or passé, especially when it comes to our collective lives as Americans.
So, how are Christians to respond to this new reality? (more…)
Tags: Church, fear, identity, missional, shifts
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Wednesday, December 1st, 2010
As I am currently reading through term papers, I occasionally come across jewels from students or from teachers of the past. The following is from a dead teacher, Lesslie Newbigin …
The Church is the pilgrim people of God. It is on the move – hastening to the ends of the earth to beseech all men to be reconciled to God, and hastening to the end of the time to meet its Lord who will gather all into one. Therefore the nature of the Church is never to be finally defined in static terms, but only in terms of that to which it is going [...] When the Church ceases to be one, or ceases to be missionary, it contradicts its own nature. Yet the Church is not defined by what it is, but by that End to which it moves. And the power of the End now works in the Church, the power of the Holy Spirit who is the earnest of the inheritance still to be revealed. (The Household of God, pp. 18-19).
Thank you, Chad.
Tags: Church, missionary, pilgrim
Posted in Church | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
BrettG, in response to a post of August 16th (Globalized Answers) comments: “Okay, now please help me understand how to ‘listen to what the Spirit is saying’.”
To the modern mind (not that BrettG has a typical modern mind), listening to the Spirit is a bit nebulous and subjective. We prefer a rational or programmatic approach to most everything in life, even our religion and devotion. So, we rely chiefly on reasoned or formulaic answers rather than those generated by processes that are Spirit-induced or Spirit-guided. This is not to say we should forgo reason altogether or that there is nothing to be gained from processes that people in other places have found helpful. The difference is that reasoning and formula can take us only so far and routinely give us expected, uniform answers when what is needed are new and local answers. (more…)
Tags: Spirit
Posted in Change, Church, Mission | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
One of the characteristics of modernity, according to Anthony Giddens (The Consequence of Modernity, p. 27), is the rise of “expert systems” of “technical accomplishments or professional expertise that organize large areas of material and social environments in which we live today.” These systems and experts allow the layperson to trust in the system and the expertise of the professional and thus stand apart from or live without intimate knowledge of huge areas of life. So, whether the professional is a lawyer, doctor, or counselor, we trust the expert knowledge of that professional without question. (more…)
Tags: modernity, work
Posted in Church, Culture | 3 Comments »
