Yesterday I spent a while reading some Emil Brunner. I'm not sure how many are now able to see behind Barth to his contemporary whose Dogmatics are in three medium sized volumes of around 1000 pages.
Brunner's Dogmatics Vol. 1, Chapters 14-16 are on The Holy, God is Love, and The Triune God. For me they are theological gold, and amongst the best of Brunner's writing. If reading good theology helps in the recovery from Covid, then I did myself a lot of good yesterday!
Sometime I'll write a blog post about why I've kept Brunner as valued friend ever since I first read him in 1978. For now, here he is in doxological mode:
"The most wonderful testimony to this final unity between Holiness and reconciling Love is found indeed, at the close of the farewell discourses of Jesus in the Gospel of John: "Holy Father, keep them in Thy name which Thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are. . .The whole passage is a symphony in which the themes of Holiness, Glory, Communion and Love constantly recur and blend in perfect harmony. The 'gratia' is fulfilled in the 'gloria', and the 'gloria' itself is simply perfect communion."
I think the photo belongs to I John Hesselink, who arranged a meeting between Barth and Brunner in 1960, the last meeting of these two Professors of Dogmatics. You can read about Hesselink the bridge-builder in this delightful article mainly about Heselink's friendship with Brunner.
Comments