The Surprising God

This post continues a series looking at Gary Deddo's two-volume book, " Karl Barth's Theology of Relations (Trinitarian, Christological, and Human: Towards an Ethic of the Family) ." For other posts in the series, click a number: 1 , 3 , 4 ,  5 . [Revised 1/28/17] Karl Barth Last time we noted that Gary's goal in writing is to explore Barth's theological ethic, which begins with who God is (Trinity), then proceeds to how God acts in relation to humanity (Christology), leading to an understanding of how we humans act in correspondence with who God created us to be as bearers of his image (anthropology). Gary then explores the application of this ethic to the family, including parent-child relationships, which, according to Barth, are a human counterpart of the divine Father-Son relationship. Gary elaborates: The divine being in act of God revealed in Jesus Christ is inherently relational, that is, is loving in freedom . In a corresponding creaturely...

This post begins a series looking at Gary Deddo's two-volume book, " Karl Barth's Theology of Relations (Trinitarian, Christological, and Human: Towards an Ethic of the Family) ." For other posts in this series, click on a number: 2 ,  3 , 4 ,  5 . [Revised 1/13/17] Dr. Deddo's book offers a detailed analysis of what Karl Barth (in his massive work,  Church Dogmatics ) says concerning the intrinsic relationality of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ( Trinitarian theology ), God's relationship to us in and through Christ ( Christology ), and how God's triune relationality is shared by humanity ( Trinitarian, Christ-centered anthropology ). Gary then shows how Barth applies these theological truths in the arena of ethics (particularly in the context of family) .  In this way, Gary defines and explores Barth's Trinitarian, Christological and anthropological perspective on human ethics. To me, having this theologically-grounded, holistic un...