The Only Sacrament Left to Us

the long version

Questions of ecclesiology abound, and Karl Barth has been regarded as an unhelpful conversation partner and guide for those who care about ecclesiology and the place of the church in the academic pursuit of theology. The Only Sacrament Left to Us recovers Barth's doctrine of the threefold Word of God and shows that it is at the heart of Barth's ecclesiological commitments, and that Barth offers a distinct and robust doctrine of the church worthy to be carried forward into the twenty-first-century debates about the church's place in God's economy. The book explores the central role of the threefold Word of God in Barth's theology of the church, explains its place in Barth's later doctrine of reconciliation, and seeks to engage the field of Barth studies with contemporary ecclesiological questions.