God is indeed the genuine Counterpart which alone can finally and primarily satisfy man and all creation as such. Far too often, however, this has been said in so general and therefore unconvincing a manner that we cannot be content to make the word “God” our final, or perhaps even our basic, term.
Far too often this word (God) is used simply as a pseudonym for the limitation of all human understanding, whether of self or the world. Far too often what is meant by God is something quite different, namely the unsubstantial, unprofitable and fundamentally very tedious magnitude known as transcendence, not as a genuine counterpart, nor a true other, nor a real outside and beyond, but as an illusionary reflection of human freedom, as its projection into the vacuum of utter abstraction.
And it is characteristic of this transcendence that it neither has a specific will, nor accomplishes a specific act, nor speaks a specific word, nor exercises a specific power and authority. It can neither bind man effectively nor effectively liberate him. It cannot be for his life either a clear meaning or a distinct person.
Who God is and what it is to be divine is something we have to learn from God as He has revealed Himself and His nature, by His holy word.
-- Barth
No comments:
Post a Comment