Karl Barth: “Dogmatics in Outline” – God the Almighty, God the Creator, Heaven and Earth, and Jesus Christ

God the Almighty - Barth’s main point here is that God’s power is nothing like power itself, and when we say things like God being all-powerful we would do well to understand that our picture of power is nothing like God’s, for God is immeasurably different and distinctly Other.  Barth references Hitler’s terminology for God being “the Almighty” which was a fundamental mistake to say God = power for power in itself is in opposition to God.

God the Creator - Since God created, God is not in creation.  When we create something we craft it with our own love and design, but when it is done, temporarily, it is not something different than us.  In this way as a Christian Barth advises us to make the distinction between believing in creation and believing in God the Creator.  

Heaven and Earth – Earth is everything conceivable, and Heaven is just as much a creaturely reality, however it is all that which is inconceivable to us.  The beauty of the Christian narrative, Barth Says, is that humans have been created in the meeting point of Heaven and Earth.  Heaven is that which everything is below.

Jesus Christ – the Word becoming flesh on Earth is the foundational miracle of the Christian Narrative.  Barth describes it as unique, something could only happen once in history.  Something that hadn’t happened before Jesus, and won’t happen after Jesus.  Jesus is not a metaphor for all people who have God in them, but was God in the Highest choosing to be with us, to be us, to live as us.  All the knowledge we know as Christians is through Jesus Christ.  

(These are brief summaries that I write a day or two after reading to practice retention.  That means some of this info may not be completely accurate and if you stumble on this post I do encourage you to read the books.  End Disclaimer)