Ep121. The Fragility of Language and the Encounter with God, Florian Klug

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I sat down with German theologian, Florian Klug, to talk about the contingency and legitimacy of doctrine. We discuss the importance of God's initiative preceding human speech, that language is not something we possess but are born into and how this gives us a horizon of preconditioned knowledge that is expanded and shattered by God's intrusion. We also discuss how his book holds together an emphasis on God’s sovereignty and God’s grace in self-revelation so to not overwhelm the human in such a way that we can’t actually make a decision. We also discuss whether doctrine is fundamentally the product of past failure (and enter into a discussion on the early councils), and end with by exploring Flo's proposal that doctrines are “statements that lead into the mysterium of Christ; they are therefore not identical to it because the limits of language are constantly being transgressed by their overarching greatness and transcendence. Doctrines… are first and foremost statements of a hopeful faith… they can be true and correct without losing their human conditionality.”

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Klug is a lecturer in systematic theology at the University of Würzburg in Germany. He has been a guest researcher in the United States, England, Ireland, and is the author or editor of four books published in German. Follow him on Twitter

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