Dimensions of Baptism Biblical and Theological Studies

272 Dimensions of Baptism

vicarious faith offered by the parents, or the Church, thus introducing an

even greater gulf between baptism and faith which would have been alien

to Luther. Yet scriptural exegesis apart, there are other theological grounds

for questioning Luther at this very point. Surely there is the world of dif-

ference between a faith humanly manufactured and that which personally

receives the promise of God. Beasley-Murray is surely right in observing

that a true human response to God is entirely reconcilable with the concept

of faith as gift. Further consideration of this must wait until later: for now

it is sufficient to note that Luther's systematic deployment of the idea of

God's hiddenness, rather than illuminating the presence of God in bap-

tism, seems only to cloud the issue. It is at precisely the point where the

relationship between the hidden work of God and the open confession of

faith in baptism come together that Luther fails to follow through his more

profound insights. To do so will require a shift in the focus of the debate

from the grace-faith dichotomy towards a more explicitly trinitarian

theology of the Spirit.

II

Karl Barth's systematic deployment of the concept of God's hiddenness

grounds his doctrine of revelation and consequently his doctrine of the

Trinity. The dialectic of revealedness and hiddenness is used as the root of

Barth's trinitarian theology: the very fact of revelation tells us that the God

who is hidden can and does reveal himself and thus there is within God the

possibility of this reality—there is distinction within God. 'Revelation in

the Bible means the self-unveiling, imparted to men, of the God who by

nature cannot be unveiled to men.'^9 In this unveiling we understand the

distinction of the Son from the Father: Jesus Christ is the revelation of

God. Yet the God who is so revealed is none other than the one who can-

not be unveiled. God remains hidden and thus we know the distinction of

the Father from the Son. Further, this revelation is 'imparted to men'; the

Father-Son dialectic is not self-evident to us, it is imparted in 'an effective

encounter betwen God and man'.^10 Thus God reveals himself as the Spirit

of the Father and the Son. In this way, in veiling, unveiling and imparta-

tion, the self-revelation of God is the root of the doctrine of the Trinity.

9. K. Barth, Church Dogmatics, I/I (trans. G.W. Bromiley; Edinburgh: T. & T.
   Clark, 2nd edn, 1975), p. 315.


10. Barth, Church Dogmatics, I/I, p. 331.