Revelation and Being and the Trinity.

The Doctrine of the Trinity, like all theology, is derived from the self-disclosure of God which is made manifest as real in faith. It can be nothing other than the interpretation of the "salvation-event" proceeding a posteriori.

Weber, 379.

Thus, Weber starts this section on the relation of the Trinity to the "salvation-event", i.e., the sending, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the subsequent outpouring of the Spirit. In this event, in this 'act', God does not reveal something other than who he is and has always been, Father, Son, and Spirit. Thus we can say that the revelation of God's being is in God's acting. Not only the revelation, but the being of God is in God's act. God is what God does. That sort of thing.

In this act, and in God's being, God is out to utterly destroy the "walled insularity of man, his enslavement to the powers and forces..." (Weber, 381). He does this, as God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. (II Cor. 5:19) He also does this through the gift, act, and "reception of the Spirit, [where] revelation becomes 'subjective reality' and thus 'possibility'" (Weber, 386). Although our knowledge of God in his revelation is imperfect because our knowledge of revelation is imperfect, this is still how we can and do know anything about God (Weber, 388).

Creator, Creation, Covenant, Law, & Christ.

I've been totally behind on posting to the blog! I want to catch up quickly, so here are some broad strokes on Scripture.

The Testimony to the Creator:
An important aspect of the Old Testament is its witness to God as Creator. When the New Testament is read or built upon without this witness behind it, we lose sense of the world and creation and "the New Testament understanding of Christian existence" is necessarily distorted. (Weber, 293)

Creation and Covenant:
Covenant is the basic term by which God establishes relationship with creation. Through covenant, humanity is permitted and invited to participate and be admitted into God's own realm. (Weber, 293) Here you go:

The Old Testament could only make the Creator known because it was coming from the encounter in which the Creator had disclosed himself as the Other and yet the One who turns to man and allows himself to be approacehed and addressed by man.

Weber, 293

This relationship to humanity is not limited to Israel, as the Old Testament witnesses to, but its central point and orientation of knowing is in and through Israel. God has established it this way.

Covenant and Law:
The Law of the Old Testament finds its meaning and ground in the covenant. Weber states that,

The law characterizes life in the covenant as life in obedience and thus as historical life. The fundamental "I am" of the decalogue is inseparable from the corresponding "Thou shalt" of the commandments.

Weber, 295.

Christ and Scripture:
In the section on "The Unfulfilled Law," Weber says important things about the function of the covenant and the law, and how it is always oriented towards a future and concrete fulfillment. Thus, Israel would reach forward with its own hands toward fulfillment of this covenant yet it could not do so, convicted of its failure by the law. So where can they turn? Paul gives us this answer in Romans 10:4 as stated by Weber,

The goal and end of the law is Christ...as the new reality. How should this be understood?

Weber, 298.

This statement is of inestimable significance. Weber beings to explain this significance on pp. 298-299. It means everything for us, for our possibility, for our contribution to salvation, etc. Here you go:

Jesus Chist is the person in who God's covenant finds its real partner, and he is simultaneously the one in whom this covenant is fulfilled. ... He is not the end of God's will toward the covenant partner. But he is the end of the law understood as man's possibility.

Weber, 299.

Thus, all we are, might be, used to be, may become is thankfully, mercifully, and gracefully in Christ. It makes sense then for Weber to posit Christ as the center of all scripture. (Weber, 302ff.) There is our hermeneutic. Enough with scripture...it's on to the Triune God!

BTW: today's reading (pp. 433-437) was awesome.

The Word of God as Event: Jesus Christ

Under the section of 'the Word as event', Weber speaks about the way in which Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh and dwells among us (Jn. 1:14). That the Word can and would dwell among us is pointed towards in the Old Testament, so that

the One in whom the Word of God is so present, as the Word of God in person, in a specific, historical man, God's elect, that in him it is no longer an alien Word, like that of the prophets, which is obediently heard, passed on, and testified to. Here, he comes to us in his total authenticity so that this Man no longer just receives and proclaims, but is the Word of God.

Weber, 181. My emphasis.

This form of the Word is the original form from which the others find their foundation. Thus, Jesus Christ is the source of their meaning and content. This is only verifiable and certain by God's own verification and authority. In this section, Weber mentions three ways that the Church has historically tried to otherwise verify the Word: by making the Church itself authoritative, by making the Bible infallible, and through some sort of historical authenticity underlying Scripture. Each of these ultimately fail because they put themselves (the Church, the Bible, or historicity) in the place of God, as God is the only true authority of the Word.

If the quote from my last post is true and read through this post, it is entirely comforting, encouraging, and challenging the Jesus Christ is the decision made about me that demands of me a decision.

Note: Weber, along with many other recent theologians, is fond of using "I and Thou" terminology. This is terminology which was made prevalent in the 1920s by Martin Buber, a Jewish philosopher. In short, it is used to denote genuine and authentic relations between two entities. It is in contrast to "I and It" relations, where the "It" refers to objects that we either use or experience, but do not enter into genuine relationship with. In reference to the Word to the Thou, he means that when the human is addressed by the Word, the human's humanity and creatureliness is upheld and respected, and visa-versa. The Wikipedia entry on I-Thou is helpful (just like all Wikipedia entries).