Well, I do know that the whole evolution discussion took me back to biology with Mr. Carey last semester. If you ever want to have a real argument about it, step out of our minor honors debates on the matter and sit down in his office one day, then come talk to me. I type that with excitement not condescension.
I know I said this in class, and I know I go back to this a lot, but I am ever reminded of my first true encounter with doubt and fighting for my faith in Mashburn's class. Getting to the point that I do not believe what I believe because of ______, but that I believe in spite of _____ was no easy feat, but that is the resolve for me. It was nice to see it affirmed with Barth. "When we believe, we must believe in spite of God's hiddenness. This hiddenness of God necessarily reminds us of our human limitation."
In chapter three when Barth says that Christian faith is not irrational, anti-rational, or suprarational, I think he does something crucial to his defense against scientia. It is not a war against science, so to speak, but I think he takes the scientific view that we cannot bring issues like metaphysics, faith, and the like up against science because there can be no solid proof. And sure, Mr. Carey and many of his colleagues are right, there is not necessarily empirical evidence for any of this. Barth brings Christianity, faith, and God back down to Earth when he puts the Church into earthly history and earthly time. He makes it something for the flawed rational, he makes it something we can touch because he reminds us of Christ becoming wholly man. Barth brings it down so that we can encounter faith and Christ the way we encounter one another. When Christ came, he was just as human as you and I but he is also wholly God. He was and still is One to be encountered and to know, as in the Spanish verb conocer: to be familiar with or acquainted with, as in a person or place.
I am not sure what Barth wants us to do about it flawed and fallen as we are. And maybe he only does all of this so we can better ask the question and understand it: What are we to think and say?
COMMENTED ON JOY'S
I think a big mistake made by humans, especially those atheists who believe in only science, is that without God, we regard ourselves as the highest beings. This is based on the intellectual capacity that we see in our own organizational skill. In short, we are blinded by pride.
ReplyDelete