Tag Archives: karl barth

Barth on the Sacraments

Posted on December 19, 2016 by J. B. Aitken

Barth, Karl.  Church Dogmatics IV/4.4 This is Karl Barth’s treatment of the ordinance of baptism.  Like other volumes in this series, it shares both Barth’s strengths and weaknesses.  It should be noted that this only a fragment of what appeared … Continue reading →

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Barth and Ramsey on Political Power

Posted on March 17, 2016 by J. B. Aitken

This is a summary of Oliver O’Donovan’s essay of similar title, found in Bonds of Imperfection.  What’s important is not so much the conclusions reached, but how they are reached. Ramsey: The crux of the difference between pacifists and justifiable-war Christians turns on … 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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A Tale of Two Metaphysics

Posted on February 14, 2016 by J. B. Aitken

To wax hippie and postmodern for a moment, this is a “journey” of a post, more than a philosophical one.  Every year I go back and forth between analytic philosophy and continental philosophy.  This seems to correlate with my reading … Continue reading →

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Metaphysics

Posted on January 28, 2016 by J. B. Aitken

Analogia Entis. Neo-Barthians think this is Antichrist. I hold to some version of this.

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A penultimate bye to Barth

Posted on January 23, 2016 by J. B. Aitken

I guess some TRs had gotten nervous because of my promoting McCormack’s understanding of the Trinity and Revelation.  And about every Advent season I find myself reading through Church Dogmatics.  Not intentionally, it just sort of worked out that way. … Continue reading →

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T. F. Torrance (Intellectual Biography)

Posted on January 2, 2016 by J. B. Aitken

This book is divided into two parts: a brief treatment of Torrance’s life and an examination of his thought. His parents were missionaries to China and fostered a deep piety and evangelistic zeal in the young Torrance. Torrance grew up … 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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Reading thinkers, not individual books

Posted on December 22, 2015 by J. B. Aitken

You will often see it suggested that one is better served by reading the corpus of major thinkers rather than simply individual books.  I think there is some wisdom to that.  So here is my reading list for 2016, Deo … 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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