Barth reminds us that theology is about truth. There is no fideism here, no emotivism. The church's witness through its confession that we call theology goes to the very depths and nature of reality. "The question of truth, with which theology is concerned throughout, is the question as to the agreement of the Church's distinctive talk about God with the being of the Church. The criterion of past, future and therefore present Christian utterance is thus the being of the Church, namely Jesus Christ, God in His gracious revealing and reconciling address to man. Does Christian utterance derive from Him? Does it lead to Him? Is it conformable to Him? None of these questions can be put apart, but each is to be put independently and will all possible force" (p. 4).

Barth's concern is not the what the "secular sciences" or "philosophy" might say. His concern is to not to subordinate God in Christ to what is already "given" -- to subordinate the gift to the given, for there is no given, only gift, seen in and through the true and perfect Gift, Jesus Christ. Barth recognizes then, like today, "attempts have always been made on all sides to criticise and correct the Church's talk about God. But what is required is its criticism and correction in the light of the being of the Church, of Jesus Christ as its basis, goal, and content" (p. 6). There is no criterion, whether it be justice, liberation, socialism, community, liberty, equality, capitalism, democracy, to which the church's task is held accountable by God rather than the being of the Church, Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega. This is the problem with both so-called progressive and conservative embodiments of the church's and individual Christian's witness today. Many "kindly take this aspect into account always miss the real problem by setting it within the sphere of their own sciences, judging the utterance of the Church about God in accordance with alien principles rather than its own principle, and thus increasing rather than decreasing the mischeif which makes cricital science necessary for the Church. The result is even worse when this is done in the name of 'theology' (p. 6).

Barth here criticizes all forms of "mediating theology" or "correlational theology" that finds its way into the church life and witness, ways of trying to make the church's witness relevant by bringing it into line with appropriate activities or causes of the day. To criticize mediating theology is not to criticize the finding of the sciences, or their importance for us. But it is to never subordinate the Gift that is the Being of the Church, Jesus Christ, to another criterion. And here, it seems to me, that Barth is spot on.