The Church Dogmatics unfolds the same insight as the commentary on Romans—that revelation, the sovereign act of God, occurs outside of and in spite of all human possibilities. Through the study of, in particular, Luther, Reformed Christology, and Anselm’s Proslogion, Barth found the tools at his disposal to build a theological system on the objective reality of God in the incarnate Christ. Thus “in Christ”—applied to both God and human beings—is the method and the content of the 13 part-volumes of the Church Dogmatics. So not only due to his contemporary influence, but because Barth refuses to take as given anything other than Immanuel, “God for us,” Barth’s theology is continually solidifying its status as a classic.

This method of building a theological system engages Barth in lengthy scriptural exegesis, engagement with all strands of Western Christian theology, and critical interactions with modern philosophy. And since Barth sees true human existence in Jesus Christ, ethics is never treated as ancillary to theological reflection; in the Church Dogmatics, themes like prayer, sanctification, and other issues central to Christian discipleship figure quite prominently. There is something here for everyone—the student, the preacher, or even the accomplished scholar.