Tag Archives: bruce mccormack

Karl Barth: Church Dogmatics II/1 (Doctrine of God), review

Posted on November 12, 2018 by J. B. Aitken

Barth’s volume is largely divided into two parts:  Our knowledge of God’s Revelation and God Himself. Per the latter, he famously rephrases the attributes of God as God’s perfections (more on that later).  This review will give a (very short) … Continue reading →

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McCormack on Thomas on Justification

Posted on January 1, 2017 by J. B. Aitken

From Bruce McCormack’s essay “What’s at Stake in the Current Debate?” I do not intend this as a “refutation” of Thomas, nor is this McCormack’s larger goal in his essay.  Thomas is simply too powerful a thinker to be refuted … Continue reading →

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Are there then two Trinities?

Posted on February 24, 2016 by J. B. Aitken

I originally wrote this when some Neo-Torrancians were making hit and run attacks against McCormack, so it was initially a defense of McCormack.  My own position has changed much, so I will go ahead and offer the conclusion: (5) McCormack’s … Continue reading →

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Frame: Neo-Orthodoxy

Posted on December 29, 2015 by J. B. Aitken

I can only deal with Barth in this post. Others will follow. If there is one single chapter in this book that is just bad, it is this one.  I am not trying to defend NeoO (in fact, I share … Continue reading →

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Towards a thesis on election

Posted on December 18, 2015 by J. B. Aitken

Not my final views, but moving towards them. Bruce McCormack notes, The order of knowing runs in the opposite direction to the order of being.   This means before we “know” God we are operating with some abstract notion of … Continue reading →

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Analytical Outline of Barth Bio

Posted on December 6, 2015 by J. B. Aitken

Realdialektik: a dialectic in real relations (McCormack 9). Part of this book’s thesis is the overturning of Hans urs von Balthalsar’s claim that Barth rejected liberalism in favor of “analogy.” McCormack argues that Barth’s use of the en/anhypostatic distinction played … Continue reading →

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Through Hegel, Fire, and Sword

Posted on December 5, 2015 by J. B. Aitken

(With proper acknowledgments to Lewis Ayres for the title). Consistency in life and doctrine is a mark of the gospel.  The godly man  does not flit from doctrine to doctrine.   That represents an unstable mind.  However, consistency of doctrine is … Continue reading →

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Crisis and Judgment, Locus and Place

Posted on December 4, 2015 by J. B. Aitken

True radicalism understands that the crisis of God’s judgment rests on all human possibilities (McCormack 284). True radicalism invites the crisis to fall upon itself. Knowledge of God itself brings on the crisis of judgment.  “The encounter of revelation with … Continue reading →

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Barth as Anti-Bourgeois

Posted on December 3, 2015 by J. B. Aitken

Currently Reading:  Bruce McCormack, Karl Barth’s Critically Realistic Dialectical Theology. Barth was a moderate socialist in his early years.  This allowed him to oppose the Marxist revolutions while remaining immune to the cultural destruction of Germany after WWI.  Said Germany was … Continue reading →

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A Clean Dialectics

Posted on December 2, 2015 by J. B. Aitken

1. Dialectics is the “D” word of theology.  It summons the spectre of Barth.   Reformed theology, though, while not historically Barthian (whatever that means) has always affirmed analogical reasoning (see Bavinck). 2. Analogical reasoning says a thing is and … Continue reading →

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