The Word of God:

Continuity in Calvin and Barth Perspectives

Presented to
Dr. Martha Moore-Keish
By
Alcenir Oliveira

For
HD-532 - REFORMED THEOLOGY
Columbia Theological Seminary
Atlanta, November 9, 2007
Introduction
To whom shall we go, said the disciples, for you have the words of eternal life. So
Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?” Simon Peter answered
him, “Lord, to whom we will go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to
believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God!” (John 6:67-69).
Calvin is not so emphatic in the metaphorical Logos. His reflections deal with
God Father, God Son and God Holy Spirit, in the Trinitarian perspective, having the
Word, the Scriptures as source that emanates from God.
In Barth, however, the discourse deals with Jesus Christ as the Word, the Logos,
as described in the Gospel of John. In his three article analysis, article two is referred to
as the Word, Jesus Christ the Son; article one is God Father and creature and article three
is God Holy Spirit. It is a chronological understanding of how the Trinity is revealed;
carefully building a discourse that denies the possibility to mislead the reader to build an
idea of who comes first in eternity.
The Word According to Calvin
 Calvin understands that the Word of God is a Holy whole content that convinces
humanity of a true God; it is God showing through the Scriptures that he is the God to

whom worship is due; he not only teaches his elect to have respect to God, but manifests 

himself as the God to whom this respect should be paid. (IV.6.1). This God of the 

Scriptures is shown not only as the creator and the power behind all the events, is also a 

God Redeemer. He says that the Scripture helps to “learn the sure marks which  

distinguish God, as the Creator of the world, from the whole herd of fictitious gods” 

(Ib.id).

Only “The Word”, we understand, has the power to pass through the ages 

convincing peoples of who is the God. No one is able to build sound doctrines not being a 

disciple of the Scriptures.  He says that the Word is the proper school for training the 

children of God, that the people not subject to the Law of God, except Israel, were always 

lost in their own vanity and errors.

The Word was the foundation of the Church, the ground on which it came to 

existence. Therefore, the church has to be the community empowered to teach, preach, 

and proclaim its truth, so that people come to faith, from darkness to light (VII.7.2). He 

defends then that the authority of the Church would lead one to embrace the Gospel and 

prepares him to believe in it.

The Scripture shows clear evidence of its being spoken by God, and, 

consequently, of it containing his heavenly doctrine and that God alone can properly bear 

witness to his own words, so these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, 

until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit (VII.7.4).

In Calvin, the Word is the only way to God, the spoken word of God. Any other 

earthly supposed way of getting to and being accepted in the presence of God is nothing 

less than madness. In other words, there is no human way to God. In VII.9.2 he says that 
any spirit which passes by the wisdom of God’s Word, and suggests any other doctrine, is 

deservedly suspected of vanity and falsehood.

The Word According to Barth

Barth understands and teaches that the highest meaning of the word is Jesus
Christ, in fact he is the Logos. When we understand and accept Jesus Christ as the Lord,
and with the help of the Holy Spirit we come to understand what it means for humanity,
understand that Jesus is at the same time God and man, that Christ is representation of the
fulfillment of the relationship of God and man.
The Word is the only way to understand the relationship between creation and the
reality of existence versus the Church, redemption and God – this is something that can
not be understood by no reasoning about our existence.
The Word in his perspective is much more than revelation, it is an enactment, is
action. He brings up the Latin word “verbum”, which is the root for the word “verb” –
this is how some Neo-Latin languages translate Logos. Verb means action; it is stronger
than “word”, which in Neo-Latin becomes “palavra”. He means it, when he says that
“God speaks, God acts, and God is in the midst”. It not a simple revelation, it is the
platonic reality coming to existence. He says that when the name Jesus Christ is
verbalized there is no room for Platonism, because it means the interaction of God and
man, the perfection manifested.
Continuity and Discontinuity
The matter of continuity and discontinuity requires extensive dedicated study,
which does not fit in the purpose of this discussion. However, there are some important
points of continuity and discontinuity.
In my view, the most important difference, discontinuity, of approach is that Bath
is essentially Christological. Through his discourse, he interrupts to say “Tell me how it
stands with your Christology, and I will tell you who you are” (66).
Other discontinuity in Barth is the claiming that the heart of confession consists of
three words “Jesus Christ is the Lord”, and that is what makes one a Christian, to confess
that Jesus Christ is the Lord. We understand in his discourse that in Jesus there is another
age, where the fulfillment of the law is spiritual: we get to God by confessing Jesus
Christ as the Lord – Jesus is the reality of the covenant between God and man -, while in
Moses we get to God by surpassing the obstacles of the law.
In Barth’s three article reflection we can say there is continuation in relation to
Calvin when we consider the trinity doctrine, where he affirms God creator, the Son and
Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, his interpretation is much more Christological while Calvin
discussion is founded in an ecclesiological perspective.
In Barth’s first article he presents creator and creature, where the relationship is
severed in the fall. Within the understanding of John 1, the Logos who was in the
beginning, in creation, is in the second article as creator-man, God and man. In the first
article, creator is above all and creature is the essence of all being. Both are different
beings. However, in the second article creator and creature come together in one. The
third article is He who is in us, the Holy Spirit.
Barth’s construction is very complex and we could put it this way: at first there is
God and man; secondly there is God-man, in Jesus Christ; and thirdly, there is God in
man, the Holy Spirit.
A evident discontinuity is Calvin’s development of the ecclesiastic understanding
of the Word. The Word becomes effective in community, and the church becomes
authoritative in administering the Word, teaching the Scripture which incorporates the
initiatives of God in reaching out for humanity, both in Moses and in Jesus. Barth is
concerned with the perception of the individual, of what the Word means for humanity
and the action of the Word in the individual.

Conclusion
We may be tempted to assume that Calvin is much focused in the Word as the
Scripture, the physical representation of God, God’s word, while Barth is essentially
dealing with the Word of God as the Word incarnated, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. We
may be quite right. However, one does not exist in its essence without the other.
Two quotes of both are very illustrative of their view. Calvin, in IV.9.3, says “for  

the Lord has so knit together the certainty of his word and his Spirit, that our minds are  

duly imbued with reverence for the word when the Spirit shining upon it enables us there  
to behold the face of God; and, on the other hand, we embrace the Spirit with no danger  

of delusion when we recognize him in his image, that is, in his word”

Barth is very profound when talks about the Holy Spirit, the third article, by 

saying that “we may speak and hear of God in man, of God who acts with us and in us, it  

might be in itself and ideology, a description of human enthusiasm, an over­wrought idea  

of the meaning of man’s inner life with its transports and its experiences, a projection of  

what takes place in us men into the height of an imaginary deity, which we call Holy  

Spirit”.

Bibliography
BARTH, Karl. Dogmatics in Outline. New York: Harper, 1970.
CALVIN, John. The Institute of Christian Religion