Somewhat related to my ‘A Variety of Lenses‘ post, Barth in Evangelical Theology has some interesting things to say.

The remarkable assumption behind this project [the exegetical-theological task], however, seems to be that the content, meaning and point of biblical assertions are relatively easy to ascertain and may afterward be presupposed as self-evident…The truth of the matter, however, is that the central affirmations of the Bible are not self-evident; the Word of God itself, as witnessed to in the Bible, is not immediately obvious in any of its chapters and verses. On the contrary, the truth of the Word must be sought precisely, in order to be understood in its deep simplicity.

– Karl Barth, Evangelical Theology (Eerdmans, 1963) 35.