We know Christ redeemed us, but what does that mean? The usual answer is: Christ paid for our sins on the cross including our original sin. A gruesome scene arises in the imagination of Christ being tormented by every sin I ever committed but most of all by the original sin we’re all said to … [Read more…]
[Part 4: Continuation of my comments upon reading Barth’s “The Epistle to the Romans”, Oxford University paperback, 1968] On page 437, Barth claims: “As an act of thinking [thinking of eternity] it dissolves itself; it participates in the pure thought of God, and is therefore an accepted sacrifice, living, holy, acceptable to God.” Barth — … [Read more…]
[Part 3: Continuation of my comments upon reading Barth’s “The Epistle to the Romans”, Oxford University paperback, 1968] As a passing matter, I noted a hint of modal logic in a passage beginning around the middle of page 324 with: “Thus, before every moment in time, God foreordains… Here is it that we encounter the … [Read more…]
Many Christians throughout history have insisted on seeing imputable guilt behind all the sins for which we are responsible. This seems wrong to me. You can be responsible for a situation, say the self-destructively rebellious state of a teenager, though you might well be free of guilt in a criminal or moral sense. Being responsible, … [Read more…]
[Part 2: Continuation of my comments upon reading Barth’s “The Epistle to the Romans”, Oxford University paperback, 1968] Around page 290, we see Barth trying to turn towards hope. Unfortunately, he has left himself in the position of most modern existentialists: all that we know to be real is nothingness and we have to look … [Read more…]