ABSTRACT
Dogmatics takes its starting point in revelation, but then proceeds to examine the language, doctrines, and teachings by which the church seeks to give voice to revelation. Karl Barth is well aware that the appeal to revelation alone leaves theology in a highly vulnerable position, humanly speaking. The secular critic can always respond that an appeal to revelation fails to answer Ludwig Feuerbach’s challenge; might not talk of ‘revelation’ be itself a projection of human needs? The criterion that allows theology to engage in this task is revelation, or the Word of God. The event–character of revelation is intrinsic to its character as God’s sheerly original, miraculous action of self-giving. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ just is the revelation of God, the place where God emerges out of hiddenness into the light. Barth is emphatic that revelation does not abrogate, but confirms the difference between God and ourselves.
