Wednesday, October 19, 2005
A servant

From Karl Barth's Theological Exegesis by Richard E. Burnett:
Whereas before it had been a matter of using the words of the Bible to get at something that [Barth], like Schleiermacher, in some sense and at some level, already knew and could say to himself, after his break [from liberal theology in 1915] he learned he could never again be so presumptuous. Interpreting the Bible became not a matter of being a 'master or 'virtuoso of the Word' (as he later often referred to Schleiermacher), but a servant of the Word, clinging steadfastly to the weak, broken vacillating human words of the Bible like a beggar... It became a matter of standing under the Word rather than over it (227).

posted by Peter at 12:39 AM
| | permalink |