In the latest IJST , Paul Nimmo of Cambridge discusses Barth’s doctrine of divine concursus, contesting the idea (advanced by George Hunsinger among others) that Barth’s concursus doctrine is “Chalcedonian.” Early in the article, he summarizes Barth’s treatment in the Church Dogmatics . As one would expect, Barth wants to start from Jesus. Nimmo says, “It is in the history of Jesus Christ . . . that there is revealed the simple autonomy of the creature and with it the true Creator-creature relationship. In this history there is revealed ‘the fatherly lordship of the Creator; the childlike obedience of the creature; and the Spirit in whom both take place together.’” In short, his doctrine of “explicitly Trinitarian.” As Barth says, concursus “is an operation in the Word and therefore by the Spirit, in the Spirit and therefore by the Word,” and hence it doesn’t “prejudice the autonomy, the fredom, the responsibility, the individual being and life and activity of the creature, or the genuineness of its own activity, but confirms and indeed establishes them.”
Much to fill out here, but a very helpful direction to pursue.
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