ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Karl Barth's treatment of Church proclamation in the first volume of the Church Dogmatics. The first volume of the Church Dogmatics is Barth's prolegomena, significantly entitled 'The Doctrine of the Word of God'. Barth calls the primary action which dogmatics tests 'Church proclamation', which takes the form of preaching and sacraments. The capacity is in virtue of the divine promise and action that the Church itself is said to be a 'sacramental area'. God has bound the Church to a form of proclamation, in preaching and sacrament, which, undertaken in obedience and faith, may become an instrument of divine revelatory action. Some elements in the description of Barth's theological principles are important for understanding the overall shape of the Church Dogmatics. Church proclamation – the Word of God in the form of preaching and sacrament addressed to human beings with the expectation and claim to be heard in faith – is the material of Barth's dogmatic investigation.
