Descriptive Review of Church Dogmatics in Outline, Ch 5

In my Introduction to Theology class, we have to do at least one "descriptive review" paper a week. The second week was on "Church Dogmatics in Outline" by Karl Barth. This paper is on the fifth chapter, entitled "God in the highest"

Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline – Chapter 5

As Barth moves through the Apostles’ Creed in his book Church Dogmatics In Outline, the author spends a varying amount of time on each phrase and concept. For instance, Barth spends three chapters on “I believe,” trying to establish what it means for a Christian to say this in the context of doctrine. In chapter five, Barth tackles the beginning of the first article of faith, “… in God.”

Question: To begin with, Barth asks, what is the content of the proclamation of the gospel? In this context, the sub-question that this chapter deals with is, what does a Christian mean when he or she says “God?” The audience is the same as before; the students at Bonn, the nation of Germany and the rest of the world. Barth is also specifically speaking to a group of people who have recently placed their allegiance with a “god” in Hitler.
Answer: In answer to this question, Barth posits that the Christian is speaking of “God in the highest” (henceforth, God in excelsis). This phrase, in excelsis, captures what Barth feels to be the differentiating factor between humanity’s concepts of God and divinity (gods) and the God of Christianity. Barth expands on this by explaining that by in excelsis, he also means the God “who exists, lives, acts, and makes himself known to us … in Jesus Christ” (35). Barth goes even further, declaring that God in excelsis is “the One who stands above us,” is established in God’s self, and is “made manifest … only through Himself” (37). If God is only made manifest through God’s own actions and the Holy Scriptures (as Barth describes them) are a record of God’s “mighty acts,” then Barth has reiterated his earlier point that the only source of knowledge of/about God is through the Word (38).

Method: Barth speaks in the language of apophasis (negative theology) and uses the reasoning frame of an existentialist to arrive at his primary point, and then uses the logic to reach the conclusion that God is God in excelsis. Perhaps due to the abuses Barth has witnessed in the name of reason, the author’s launching point for the discussion of God is summed up in this statement, “if we glance at the history of human … assertion about this being [God] … [the] impression we receive is … of human waywardness and human violence with this concept, this idea of God” (35). Barth’s response to this troubling observation is that “when Christians speak of ‘God’, we may and must be clear that this word signifies a priori the fundamentally Other, the fundamental deliverance from that whole world of man’s … speculating” (36). It is clear that Barth believes it impossible to methodically and philosophically “reach” up to this God in the highest.

Therefore, Barth elaborates on the act of God “descending” as the definitive characteristic (to humankind’s perspective) of the God of Christianity. This proposition is forcefully stated on page 38, where Barth speaks to those who would attempt and prove God’s existence; “I speak of a God who proves Himself on every hand: Here am I, and since I live and act it is superfluous that I should be proved” (38). These “mighty acts of God” are shown to be in three categories (or strata): the work of creation, the covenant between God and humankind, and the work of redemption (39). It is through these acts that God descends, and thus, is God in excelsis.

Significance: To anyone in Barth’s time, the problem of usurpers has become a pressing issue; Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini among others have placed themselves in power in such a way as to steal the ‘title’ of Lord from God. Barth speaks vehemently against this, decrying any and all attempts to claim divinity outside of the three mighty acts of God found in the Holy Scriptures. This chapter’s definition of the God of Christianity is a pronouncement against any person who claims divinity for his/herself.

Evaluation: Outside of the context of the situation (indeed, outside the context of the book), this chapter stands on its own as a ‘natural negative theology.’ Barth comes to the “obvious” conclusion that we cannot know God, therefore God must reach us. The flaws in the author’s arguments can be illuminated by the very idea that we can claim to know God in the highest in spite of all the author’s posturing on the side of apophasis. Barth seems to say, we cannot know God, but we must know God. In spite of this apparent contradiction, the author eloquently speaks to the concept of the God of Christianity as a non-concept; he speaks about God as an acting, living being that is made known to us in Christ. Overall, one might still argue that to this day, we have not grasped the Otherness of God, instead continuing the pretentious ideas and concepts of divinity that allow us to continually reshape God in our own image. Barth stands against it.