This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G
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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Introduction A number of years ago, when I was first exploring this topic and my interest in the Christian community in Karl Barth’s theological project, I shared this interest with a prominent contemporary theologian. ‘Karl Barth had an ecclesiology?’ he responded rhetorically, if not a bit sarcastically. In much contemporary theological discussion, Karl Barth’s theology of the church is seen either as a useless dead end or as a topic of little interest or import to more interesting themes in Barth’s theological corpus. In addition, Barth’s concept of the threefold Word of God is all too familiar terrain that could not possibly be worth any additional detailed engagement and re- visitation. This thesis runs counter to these two commonly held assumptions: that Karl Barth had a weak ecclesiology, and that nothing new or significant can be gleaned from a detailed study of the threefold Word of God in Barth’s theology. This thesis is about the threefold Word of God in the theology of Karl Barth, particularly the third form, the gospel event, as it happens in and to the Christian community and shapes its life in the world. This thesis is also about the church. This thesis argues that this threefold Word of God, the tertiary form in particular, is critical to Barth’s theological vision of the Christian community. It is in the church’s attempt to proclaim and hear the gospel, that the risen Christ comes and comes again, speaking the Word of God through broken human words, freeing the Christian community to get up and follow in discipleship, and sending the Christian community to engage the world in correspondence to the life and activity of Jesus Christ at work in their midst. Thus, this dissertation has four aims. First, to offer a comprehensive engagement with Karl Barth’s early presentation of the threefold Word of God, from 1 Göttingen to its final form in Church Dogmatics I/1 and I/2, including its practical import for the Christian community exemplified in the Barmen Declaration. Second, this thesis engages in depth with Karl Barth’s re-visitation of the threefold Word of God in Church Dogmatics IV/3, and argues that while Barth revised the concept in his later presentation, he did not reject the concept or leave it behind. Though Barth admitted that he could not present the concept in exactly the same way, this thesis argues that Barth never rejected the claim that God speaks in the life of the Christian community through the gospel declaration nor did Barth reject the conviction that Christ embeds Himself in the words and witness of the Christian community. Finally, there are two broader aims of this study. I argue for the central role of the threefold Word of God in Karl Barth’s vision of the church, something neglected in many accounts of Barth’s ecclesiology. Second, I argue that the gospel proclamation and its impact in the life of the Christian community are integral to Barth’s overall vision of the church and the particular characteristics and practices of the Christian community. Throughout this thesis, I offer a number of examples of how the threefold Word of God is central to Barth’s broader ecclesiology and to the particular identity and distinct qualities of the Christian community. Barth’s own theology of the threefold Word of God and the Christian community, along with contemporary post-Barthian attempts to offer a theological account of a gospel- centric actualistic ecclesiology, are important ecclesiological alternatives to eucharist-centric ecclesiologies and post-liberal practice based ecclesiologies proliferating in contemporary theology. While this thesis is about the centrality of the threefold Word of God in the theology of Karl Barth, the second form of the Word of God, scripture, gets short 2 shrift. This is intentional. While scripture is the primary witness and foundation for any contemporary proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and while scripture is engaged at points in this study, a full blown account of Barth’s doctrine of scripture and the role of scripture in Barth’s theology is not possible in the scope of this study. Instead, the focus of this dissertation is on the tertiary form of the Word of God and its own unique and central role in the life of the Christian community. In addition, there have been a number of contemporary studies of the role of scripture in the theology of Karl Barth, and many recent attempts to establish and maintain the role of scripture as a secondary form of the Word of God. Such scholarly endeavors have not extended however to the third form of the Word of God, Christian proclamation, which has been limited in scope to a contemporary response to the Word of God. This thesis argues the other way round; that Christ comes in contemporary church proclamation just as he encountered the early Christian prophets and apostles. To deny Christ’s divine reality and presence to the church’s contemporary proclamation of the gospel risks denying Christ’s divine presence to scripture and to Christ’s humanity. For better or for worse, Christ chooses to encounter human beings through the church’s flawed attempts to proclaim his gospel—becoming the third form of the Word of God and shaping the Christian community for distinct discipleship and gospel witness in and for the world. In the first three chapters of this study, I examine material and draw from sections of the first two volumes of the Church Dogmatics. In chapters 4 and 5, I primarily treat materials from the fourth volume. Chapter One presents an overview of Karl Barth’s early and original use of the threefold Word of God in Church Dogmatics I/1 and I/2 and the relationship between the church’s proclamation, the 3 gospel event, and the life of the Christian community. Chapter Two explores the particular role of the Holy Spirit in relation to the threefold Word of God, and traces its activity related to the third from of the Word of God and its activity in the life of the Christian community. Chapter Three builds on these early themes to argue that the threefold Word of God is a crucial element in Barth’s vision of the church and offers the Barmen Declaration as a practical illustration of the threefold Word of God in historical context. Chapter Four addresses the revision Barth makes to the concept of the threefold Word of God in Church Dogmatics IV/3, and explores contemporary scholarly discussion of Barth’s use and revision of the threefold Word of God. Chapter Five argues that the threefold Word of God continues to be relevant today for Barth studies, for Reformed theological expressions of divine and human activity in the life of the Christian community, and for modern ecclesiology. The threefold Word of God serves as a central theological illustration of divine-human encounter and uniting in the church’s ongoing life together and witness in the world. This dissertation is the first of its kind to focus on the role of the threefold Word of God in the larger context of the Church Dogmatics and in relation to Karl Barth’s vision of the Christian community. This dissertation is also the first of its kind to explore Barth’s re-visitation and revision of the threefold Word of God and to engage comprehensively with contemporary scholarship related to this revision. Finally, this dissertation seeks to bring the field of Barth studies into conversation with broader contemporary ecclesiological issues and it seeks to re-assess contemporary ecclesiological dismissals of Barth’s theology of the Christian community, all through the lens of the threefold Word of God. 4 Chapter One: The Threefold Word of God & Proclamation The whole situation in the church suddenly becomes intelligible if it is seen to be the framework of this event; the existence of the minister is justified if he makes himself the servant of this event; and the very act which in Protestantism should form the crux of the service, the sermon as the exposition of Scripture, becomes fraught with meaning when it is a preaching of the Word of God. --Karl Barth in 19221 The Word of God in all its three forms is God’s speech to man. For this reason it occurs, applies and works in God’s act on man. But as such it occurs in God’s way which differs from all other occurrence, i.e., in the mystery of God. --Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics I/1, 1252 This chapter explores the concept of the threefold Word of God and its origins in Karl Barth’s early work, beginning with Barth’s dogmatic work in Göttingen (1924), continuing with later revisions and presentations in Münster (1927), and culminating with the form published in the Church Dogmatics I/1 (1932) and I/2 (1938).