ABSTRACT
This chapter engages in a partial reading of Barth's early radicalism. The abiding radicalism of the second edition of Barth's Romans commentary consists in a theology of the Word as consistent and compelling as Luther's. In the images of divine power Barth seeks to re-enact the cosmic exorcism effected in Jesus' words, in what amounts to a poetic theology of the Word. His own rhetorical performance claims to participate in the rhetorical event of redemption. Faith, for Barth, requires dialogical expression. Harnack's complaint was that Barth dismissed historical criticism and thereby also the humane and enlightened form of faith that 'scientific' theology safeguards and promotes. In The Gottingen Dogmatics, Barth's first work of dogmatic theology which consists of his lectures of 1924, the attempted task remains: to ground faith and theology in the objectivity of divine authority, the actual agency of the Word.
