Redescribing God: The Roles of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason in Karl Barth's Doctrines of Divine Unity, Constancy, and Eternity (Princeton Theological Monograph Series)

Pokrifka, Todd

ISBN 10: 1606081985 / ISBN 13: 9781606081983

Published by Pickwick Publications, 2010

About this Item

Very Good. Used with some reading wear incl. some soiling to edges and miniature indentation to bottom edge - this indentation seems as though it could have been made by a tiny but extremely powerful insect, flying at the bottom edge at a high rate of speed, and upon impact creating a tiny crater and leaving a small blackish trace behind - this is all conjecture, and may be the work of something more innocuous altogether - but is still in great reading condition. No markings in text.

Seller Inventory # mon0000702045

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Redescribing God: The Roles of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason in Karl Barth's Doctrines of Divine Unity, Constancy, and Eternity (Princeton Theological Monograph Series)
• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1606081985
• ISBN 13: 9781606081983
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Despite the voluminous and ever-growing scholarly literature on Karl Barth, penetrating accounts of his theological method are lacking. In an attempt to fill this lacuna, Todd Pokrifka provides an analysis of Barth's theological method as it appears in his treatment of three divine perfections--unity, constancy, and eternity--in Church Dogmatics, II/1, chapter VI. In order to discern the method by which Barth reaches his doctrinal conclusions, Pokrifka examines the respective roles of Scripture, tradition, and reason--the "threefold cord"--in this portion of the Church Dogmatics. In doing so he finds that for Barth Scripture functions as the authoritative source and basis for theological critique and construction, and tradition and reason are functionally subordinate to Scripture. Yet Barth employs a predominantly indirect way of relating Scripture and theological proposals, a way in which tradition and reason play important "mediatory" roles. Barth's approach to theology involves the humble yet serious attempt to "redescribe God," that is, to say again on a human level what God has already said in the divine self-revelation attested in Scripture. Redescribing God features an original conceptual framework for the analysis of Barth's method and an extensive application of that framework in the context of close readings of portions of the Church Dogmatics. Through this process it draws from, critiques, and complements a wide variety of Barth scholarship on topics such as the role of Scripture and theological exegesis in Barth, the role of tradition in Barth, the meaning and role of "reason" in Barth, and the nature of Barth's doctrine of divine perfections. The book also provides a fruitful basis for those who wish to learn from Barth's distinctive way of constructing the Christian doctrine of God as an attempt to obey God's self-revelation.

About the Author

Todd B. Pokrifka is a Lecturer in Theology at Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, CA).