Eli Gutierrez, THEO 7364 – The Theology of Karl Barth, Final Take Home Essay

Barth’s understanding of the revelation and the knowledge of God.

The second volume of Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics is entitled “the Doctrine of God”. In it,
Barth begins by dealing with the question of the knowledge of God. The main argument in this
section is that God reveals himself through himself. The only source of the knowledge of God is
his self-revelation in Jesus Christ. And we can know him only through the work of the Holy Spirit.
As it is usual in Barth’s theology, it is a trinitarian understanding of the knowledge of God. In a
nutshell, God reveals God through God.
Barth’s starting point is that only God knows God. This means that even in the immanent
Trinity there is knowledge of God. The world is not necessary for God to be known because he is
known in and by himself. Moreover, only God possesses the possibility of knowing God.
Therefore, any other true knowledge of God is a participation in God’s knowledge of himself. This
is the foundation of Barth’s doctrine of God, in which everything starts solely with God himself
as the only source and possibility to know him.
It is important to remember that Barth is dealing with the teaching of the church and not with
metaphysical speculations. In that sense, Barth starts from the premise that God is really known in
the Christian church. God is “the presupposition, meaning, and power of everything that is to be
said and heard in the Church”.1 This means that within the teaching of the church there are no
questions concerning God’s knowledge. We cannot ask whether God is known because there is no
standpoint outside the Word of God from which we could ask such a question. He is knowable and
known in his Word, that is a given. The Christian church knows God, and that is a certainty.
Nevertheless, what we can ask is how and how far is this knowledge possible. Barth affirms
that the knowledge of God is bound to God’s Word given to the church. God gave his Word to be
known by his church, and that is the only true knowledge of him. Accordingly, any knowledge of
God that is not bound to his Word is the knowledge of false gods. Also, in the knowledge of God
bound to his Word there is certainty because it depends only on his self-revelation. For Barth, the
question of the knowledge of God should start with God. He says that “binding by the Word of
God must take place at the beginning, […] at the point of departure we are constrained by the
Word of God”.2
In other words, the fulfillment of the knowledge of God takes place by the revelation of the
Word of God. And, because it is a self-revelation, it is bound by the uniqueness of its object, God
himself. The knowledge of God is unique and different from any other knowledge in the sense that
it is the only knowledge that has God as its object, and God is absolutely different in magnitude
and quality to any other object that could be known. In that sense, the knowledge of God is a
mediated knowledge. As has been said already, God and only God knows himself. Therefore, any
other knowledge of God is not immediate but a participation in the self-knowledge of God.
In Barth’s theology, this has many implications. First of all, it means that revelation is a miracle
of grace. In revealing himself God becomes an object, not by any necessity or foreign power that
force him but by his own decision of grace. Nevertheless, he remains a subject because he is
revealed to us as another, one with whom we meet. That is why this section of the Church
Dogmatics is called “Mad Before God” because it is dealing with the question of how and how far
can humanity be before God and know him. And Barth’s answer is that God is the one who reveals
himself to human beings.

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 God wills to be known and he reveals himself for us to know him. That is a decision and an
action of grace toward humanity. We could not by any means know God by our own. We do not
even deserve to know him. But the basis of our knowledge of God is not upon any of our own
merits but upon his act of grace to reveal himself. It is the epistemological equivalent of the
soteriological doctrine of justification by grace alone. It is the knowledge of God by grace alone.
In other words, he is the starter and fulfiller of our knowledge of God.
How does God reveal himself? In Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit. Barth says that “if
God gives Himself to man to be known in the revelation of His Word through the Holy Spirit, it
means that He enters into the relationship of object to man the subject.”3 It is God who creates the
possibility of his own knowledge on the ground of his knowledge of himself. As Barth says “the
self-knowledge of God is the real and primary essence of all knowledge of God.” 4 In that sense,
God is object, primarily and directly, to himself. Therefore, we know him only in a mediated way.
We know God only on the basis of the revelation of his knowledge of himself in Jesus Christ
and through the Holy Spirit. We participate in his knowledge of himself. Therefore, our knowledge
of God is always a mediated knowledge. Furthermore, because God knows himself as an object
and our knowledge of him is based on his knowledge of himself, we can know God only
objectively. For Barth, then, there is no non-objective knowledge of God.
What does it mean that our knowledge of God is mediated? It means that in his self-revelation,
argues Barth, God is present to humanity in a medium. That does not put into question the certainty
of the knowledge of God. No, it is certain because it depends on his own revelation. But it takes
place in a medium. God comes as an object before humanity who, then, becomes the subject. This
happens in Jesus Christ and by the work of the Holy Spirit who makes humanity accessible to God,
capable of considering him an object. In Jesus Christ we know truly God, he is the gracious
revelation of God to make himself known. Revelation is, then, God speaking in and through
himself.
Barth differentiates between primary objectivity and secondary objectivity. First of all, God is
objective to himself. In immanent Trinity, God’s objectivity and knowledge of himself are a divine
reality before any creaturely objectivity or knowledge existed. It is an immediate objectivity. The
Father is object to the Son, and the Son to the Father without mediation. This is the primary
objectivity of God.
The secondary objectivity is that which he has for us. But these two objectivities are not
distinguished “by a lesser degree of truth, but its particular form suitable for us.”5 Which means
that God is objectively immediate to himself and mediated to us. For us, God is not objective
directly but indirectly, clothed under the sign and veil of other objects. But this secondary
objectivity is fully true because it has its correspondence and basis in God’s primary objectivity.
That means that God is the same in himself and to us. And it also means that there is no such thing
as a “non-objective” knowledge of God.
Barth argues that we know God only in his clothed objectivity. Only under the sign and veil of
other objects do we know him, believe in him, and pray to him. But we truly know who he is. He
is not different in the immanent Trinity and the economic Trinity. He is the same in himself and to
us. Therefore, we know God under the veil of other objects but we truly know him. Barth maintains
that “this other object is the medium by which God gives himself to be known and in which man

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knows God.”6 We cannot comprehend exactly how this happens but we can trust that it truly does
because that is the witness of the Scripture.
The knowledge of God takes place, then, in the encounter of humanity and a part of the
surrounding reality which is different from God. This reality does not become identical with God,
but represents him. Barth maintains that through the work of God these objects “serve to attest the
objectivity of God and therefore to make the knowledge of God possible and necessary.” 7 This
happens through the work of God and not in virtue of the object in itself. And it is also a work of
grace. The creature, as a creature, cannot stand directly before God but only before other objects.
These objects bear witness of the objectivity of God and are the means of a true knowledge of him.
Dealing with the primary and secondary objectivity of God Barth concludes that the
“knowledge of God in faith is always this indirect knowledge of God, knowledge of God in His
works, and in these particular works–in the determining and using of certain creaturely realities to
bear witness to the divine objectivity.”8 In sum, because of our creaturely condition we can know
God only through the veil of his works and signs. And God wills to be known, therefore, he freely
and graciously reveals himself to us through his works and signs.
The Scripture, argues Barth, bears witness to such understanding of the knowledge of God.
Human beings cannot stand in the “naked” presence of God without being exposed to the
annihilating divine wrath. In the biblical witness, when God reveals himself to his people he does
it in a way that is adapted to them as creatures. In the greatest revelation of God, the incarnation,
he also reveals himself through the sign of flesh. The gospel of John says that the Word became
flesh. It is an indirect knowledge of God, but a true knowledge of him. God is actually present and
revealed in such secondary objectivity.
Barth’s understanding of these matters is really helpful for our theology today. Jesus Christ is
really God. But that does not mean that God is a Jewish man who lived in the first century. The
manhood of Jesus is the sign through which God revealed himself truly to humanity. In the same
way, the Bible proclaims God in his mediability, in his clothed objectivity. The task of the church
is, therefore, to grasp such knowledge and proclaim it. There is no better knowledge of God than
this, the witness of the Word of God. But it is not a possession of the church but a gift from God
that we must value as the most valuable treasure that has been given to us.
The fact that our knowledge of God is mediated also means that it is the knowledge of faith.
Faith, says Barth, is the total positive relationship of humanity to God who makes himself known
in his Word. “It is man’s act of turning to God, of opening up his life to Him and of surrendering
to Him. It is the Yes which he pronounces in his heart when confronted by this God, because he
knows himself to be bound and fully bound.”9 In other words, the revelation of God demands a
human response. In that sense, faith is the positive response to the self-revelation of God.
Faith includes humbleness, gratitude, trust, and obedience. It requires humbleness because
when we acknowledge that it is not for our own merits that we know God we are humbled. We
understand we could not know God in our condition. We were condemned to the unknowledge of
God. We were not even able to know him. There is nothing in us that could make possible for us
the knowledge of God. When we know God, this is the first the thing that we know, that we could
not know him unless he reveals himself to us. Any knowledge of God that does not acknowledge
such thing is the knowledge of false gods.

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 It includes also gratitude because we did not deserve the self-revelation of God. He reveals
himself to us only because he decides to do so in his grace. There is no necessity or external force
that makes him reveal himself. Indeed, God’s being is the same whether we know him or not. The
fact that humanity knows God does not add anything to who God is, he is the same in himself than
in his revelation. Therefore, revelation is a miracle of grace. And the proper human response
includes gratitude.
Also, it includes trust. The knowledge of God is not just a sort of information but a hearty
response of confidence in his Word. In revelation, we understand God as another different from
us who encounters us because of his grace. It is a relationship in which God puts himself to us. In
the Scripture, faith is depicted as a relationship between God and us. That is what Barth calls the
knowledge of God, a relationship in which we actually take part in it. In the self-revelation of God,
we are not merely spectators. We are participants in his knowledge.
Finally, it is also obedience. The positive response of humanity through faith to the revelation
of God includes also the acknowledgement of God as Lord. He deserves our obedience because
he is Lord and we are his creatures. Knowing God is also obeying his commands. The fact that the
knowledge of faith includes humbleness, gratitude, trust, and obedience, means that the knowledge
of God is unique. God is the only object that awakens love, trust, and obedience. The objectivity
of God is different than any other object’s objectivity.
It is important to note that the knowledge of God is not something that we have at our disposal.
Indeed, that is the main difference between the knowledge of God and any other knowledge. The
difference is in the object. Certainly, we have God as an object but not in the same sense as we
have other objects. God is the only object that is also the living Lord and Creator of the whole
world. The difference is that God is the one who made himself object to us. We have him as an
object only because of his free grace that chose to be known. Only God is the object of the
knowledge of faith. And this is true both in the primary objectivity as in the secondary objectivity.
In sum, we do not master God. He remains the Lord always.
Barth’s understanding of revelation and the knowledge of God is deeply theocentric.
Everything starts with the fact that God knows himself. And he reveals himself through himself.
Only then can we know him. But even our knowledge of God is mediated because it is not directly
but a participation in his knowledge of himself. Moreover, it is mediated because as creatures we
could not see him directly. Therefore, he was the one who decided to reveal himself through his
free and gracious works of revelation under the veil of signs, in objects from our surrounding
reality. Indeed, our knowledge of God is not really ours, it is God’s knowledge of himself in which
we participate.
Furthermore, Barth’s understanding of revelation and the knowledge of God is, also, deeply
trinitarian. The first statement of Barth in this section is “the knowledge of God occurs in the
fulfilment of the revelation of His Word by the Holy Spirit”.10 This phrase encapsulates the
argument of the whole section and shows Barth’s trinitarian theology. The knowledge of God takes
place in the revelation of Jesus Christ and is possible for us through the work of the Holy Spirit.
In the immanent Trinity God knows himself, the Father is object to the Son and so on. Therefore,
God is knowable and known even in himself. God is the same God in the economic Trinity, and it
does not add anything to his being in himself.
Revelation and the knowledge of God are all about his free grace to humanity. Therefore, says
Barth, “the knowledge of God cannot be fulfilled in neutrality, but only in our relationship to this

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act, and therefore only in an act, the act which is the decision of obedience to Him.”11 The
fulfilment of the knowledge of God, affirms Barth, is the positive response of human beings to
God. This is a response of love, trust, and obedience.
This understanding of revelation and the knowledge of God can impact our theology and
church practice today in many levels. First of all, it remembers us that all of our theology should
be grounded in the Word of God. What the church teaches is not up to our free choices or
metaphysical speculations. God has revealed his Word and that is our sole source of knowledge of
God. In that sense, it is an absolutely certain knowledge. Today, the modern world has put into
question the concept of truth. It appears that the Truth, with article and capital “T”, does not exist
anymore. There are no certainties in the world. It may be a reflection of the human un-ableness to
found certainties in ourselves. However, the knowledge of God is bound to his Word, not to us.
Therefore, it is completely certain.
Also, we should remember that our theology must be always theocentric. Sounds obvious, but
not in the anthropocentric and individualistic era that we are living. In secular modernity, the
human being has come to occupy the place of the end and measure of all things. The truth is up to
the likes and dislikes of every individual. However, the witness of the Scripture and the teaching
of the church throughout history makes clear that it has never been about humans but about God.
In that sense, Karl Barth’s deeply theocentric theology put our feet back in the ground.
Moreover, Barth’s theology is also deeply trinitarian. This feature comes directly from his
reading of the Scripture. The fact that the revelation of God takes place in Jesus Christ is the
essence of the Christian faith. The revelation of God is a particular event performed by himself in
Jesus Christ. And we know him by the work of the Holy Spirit. This means that Trinity is the only
way to speak about God. For the Christian church, this means that the way to speak about God has
been given to us, it is not up to us to invent new ways to speak about him. Does not matter if it
may offend some people, or if it is not suitable with the ideologies of post-modernity, the church
must use the way God established to speak about him, any other way is the knowledge of false
gods.
Another helpful insight of Barth’s theology for the church of today is the distinction of mediate
and immediate knowledge of God. Our knowledge of God is mediated in the sense that it is under
the veil of a sign or a medium. God reveals himself through objects in our own reality.
Nevertheless, his revelation is much more than the signs. This is so important for the church to
understand. For example, in the discussion of Bible inerrancy. Without entering in the debate, what
we should stress here is that the human words, signs, and objects, are not the revelation of God in
itself. The Scripture is not a direct revelation of God. It is the means through which God reveals
himself in an indirect way. Again, the knowledge of God is theocentric, not bible-centric.
Finally, for the Christian life is important the understanding of the knowledge of God as a
knowledge of faith that is effected by God’s free grace. Again, revelation is a gift from God. A
free and gracious gift. God did not have to do it, he did it because he freely chose to. We did not
deserve it but he decided to reveal himself by grace. And we were not able to know him but he
enabled us through the Holy Spirit. In that sense, our only appropriate response to the self-
revelation of God is a positive response of faith and obedience, and that is a true knowledge of
him.

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