Philip Arthur Bence PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

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God also revealed himself in Scripture, the writings of
those who witnessed to Christ, the Written Word. God
reveals himself, too, in proclamation (of which preaching
is a, if not the, primary component) which faithfully
witnesses to Scripture's witness to Christ. While
preaching is subordinate to Jesus Christ and Scripture,
all three equally offer God's revelation.'5
James Stewart saw Jesus as God's supreme
self—revelation. Contemporary preaching can take on the
quality of revelation when the preacher faithfully
proclaims Jesus.
The problem of communication resolves itself
Into a question of faith: faith in the
message, the kind of faith which, being fiducia
and not mere assensus. is an act uniting the
messenger to the Christ, of whom his message
tells--so that every time the message is told,
the whole situation is charged with the
supernatural, the whole redeeming energy of the
eternal is concentrated, Christ Himself is
veritably at work, and the Cross and the
Resurrection are no longer past events but
present realities in which the living God meets
men and challenges them to dec1sion.6.
Likewise, "To be thus taken command of, so that our
testimony, when we go out to speak of Christ, is not ours
at all, but Christ's self—testimony--this is our vocation
and the hope of our ministry."'
Barth and Stewart's positions are similar, but a
subtle difference appears. Both emphasized that God
speaks through the faithful preacher. Pictorially
speaking, both saw divine water coming through human
pipelines, but remaining pure. Barth emphasized the
overwhelming power of the water transforming any defect