Divine freedom and revelation in Christ : : the doctrine of eternity with special reference to the theology of Karl Barth / / Alexander Garton-Eisenacher [and three others].

• VerfasserIn: Garton-Eisenacher, Alexander,
• TeilnehmendeR: Garton-Eisenacher, Alexander,
• Place / Publishing House: Göttingen : : V&R Unipress,, [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (205 pages)

Christianity claims that the incarnation provides reliable knowledge about God but also that the incarnation was undertaken freely and thus need not have happened. This book resolves this tension between epistemological reliability and divine freedom, building particularly from the work of Karl Barth. The author offers a fresh reading of the Church Dogmatics that demonstrates how Barth's theology provides a promising starting point but notes that his argument is ultimately undermined by the doctrine of eternity within which it is framed. The author overcomes this issue by showing how the promising motifs employed by Barth can be authentically derived from the classical doctrine of eternity instead. In so doing, this work shows that reading classical eternity against a Barthian background also serves to draw out a more temporal interpretation of the doctrine than its contemporary characterization, reclaiming it as a viable Christian understanding of God's relationship to time.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Table of Contents -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Scope -- 1.2 Purpose and methodology -- 1.3 Narrative outline -- Part I: Reckoning with Karl Barth -- 2. Barth's Analogically Mediated Epistemology -- 2.1 The analogical truth of revelation -- 2.2 The compatibility of the incarnation with the divinity of Christ -- 2.3 Revelation and election: Christ as the disclosure of ontological self-determination -- 2.4 The reliability of election: the reformulation of supralapsarianism -- 2.5 The reliability of election: Jesus Christ as its subject and object -- 3. The McCormack-Hunsinger Debate -- 3.1 The metaphysical priority of being or act: the logical ordering of the Trinity and election -- 3.2 Bruce McCormack -- 3.2.1 Jesus as the subject and object of election: McCormack's radically actualist Barth -- 3.2.2 Jesus as the subject and product of election: a contradiction in terms? -- 3.2.3 The incarnation and notions of ontological significance -- 3.2.4 Is Jesus ever the subject of election? -- 3.2.5 The devaluation of election as a real decision -- 3.3 George Hunsinger -- 3.3.1 Trinity and election in the Church Dogmatics -- 3.3.2 Barth's use of ontology -- 3.3.3 Analogia temporalis and the reliability of revelation -- 3.3.4 Jesus Christ as the subject of election: the role of the Logos asarkos in Barth's theology -- 3.3.5 The return of the Deus absconditus -- 3.4 Critical evaluation as interpretations of the Church Dogmatics -- 3.4.1 Bruce McCormack -- 3.4.2 George Hunsinger -- 4. Barth's Metaphysics I: God as a Being-in-Act -- 4.1 The metaphysical indissolubility of being and act -- 4.2 Essential reality and self-determination: a unity-in-distinction -- 4.3 The divine being as reiterative and the reformulation of constancy as 'faithfulness' -- 5. Barth's Metaphysics II: Divine Freedom.

5.1 Divine freedom in the act of revelation -- 5.2 Counterfactual freedom and the content of revelation -- 5.3 Divine freedom in creation and salvation -- 5.4 The positive meaning of freedom as "self-determination" -- 5.5 God as "the one who loves in freedom" -- 6. Barth's Metaphysics III: Doctrine of Eternity -- 6.1 The incarnation as the basis for the doctrine of eternity -- 6.2 God's time for us: revelation and the time of Jesus Christ -- 6.3 The nature of eternity: stare and fluere -- 6.4 The nature of eternity: pre-temporal, supra-temporal and post-temporal -- 6.5 The trinitarian structure of eternity -- 7. Critical Evaluation of Barth's Solution -- 7.1 Balancing epistemological reliability with divine freedom -- 7.2 Ancillary eternity: the detachment of the incarnation from election -- 7.3 Problems with Barth's analogia temporalis -- 7.4 Reiterative self-affirmation: between Hegelianism and Modalism -- 7.5 Eternal succession and the spectre of the Deus absconditus -- Part II: Building on Karl Barth -- 8. Robert Jenson -- 8.1 Moving beyond Barth -- 8.2 Identification of God with the resurrection -- 8.3 God as event: narratological metaphysics -- 8.4 Divine freedom as futurity -- 8.5 Perichoresis and the unity of time in God -- 8.6 God as future -- 8.7 The pre-existence of the Son -- 8.8 Tension resulting from the being-act categories -- 8.9 The reduction of divine freedom -- 8.10 Problems arising from Jenson's doctrine of eternity -- 8.11 Critical evaluation: the return to analogia temporalis -- 9. The Classical Doctrine of Eternity and God as Actus Purus -- 9.1 Justification and outline -- 9.2 The logic of eternity -- 9.3 God as actus purus: Thomas Aquinas' argument for God as prime mover -- 9.4 Aquinas' dependence on Aristotle: the meaning of δύναμις -- 9.5 The meaning of ἐνέργεια: the case for "activity".

9.6 The meaning of ἐνέργεια: the case for "activity" and "actuality" -- 9.7 The analogy between cases of being-in-ἐνέργεια and being-in-δύναμις -- 9.8 Differences between Aristotelian and Thomist metaphysics -- 9.9 The implications of God as actus purus: God as inherently active -- 9.10 Divine activity as triune generation -- 9.11 The implications of God as actus purus: the incarnation as an eternal occurrence -- 9.12 The possibility of eternal causation -- 9.13 The simultaneity of time in eternity -- 9.14 Eternal incarnation -- 9.15 From being-in-act to actus purus: no other Logos but Christ -- 10. The Classical Doctrine of Eternity and the Analogia Temporalis -- 10.1 "Time" as a divine name -- 10.2 Eternity as "life": point-like and extensional models -- 10.3 Eternal duration -- 10.4 Eternal movement -- 10.5 Eternal movement as triune perichoresis -- 10.6 Eternity and the mechanics of the analogia temporalis -- 10.7 Triune generation as the eternal basis for Godforsakenness, suffering and sin -- 10.8 The analogia temporalis as a via media -- 10.9 The response of the Son and Holy Spirit: "consent" as reciprocal kenosis -- 10.10 Divine freedom in the analogia temporalis: between freedom and caprice -- 10.11 Responding to critiques of von Balthasar -- 10.12 Analogia temporalis in Barth and von Balthasar -- 11. Conclusion -- 11.1 Barth redux -- 11.2 Reframing classical eternity -- 11.3 Reclaiming classical eternity -- 11.4 Moving forwards -- Index of Subjects -- Bibliography.