ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book raises important questions about the ways in which Karl Barth can continue to influence contemporary discussions about the theological interpretation of scripture. In Barth's case the theological conviction about scripture's freedom and authority in the church issues in a tactical call for a certain conceptual restlessness. But the underlying point is that a recognition of the sheer priority of divine action in scripture invites an active methodological humility. Barth's account of the freedom of scriptural interpretation from hermeneutical distraction involves a particular understanding of what scripture is. The key term here, present throughout Barth's work and massively developed in the first volume of the Church Dogmatics, is witness'. A theological interpretation of scripture assumes that the Bible speaks for itself, and it does so as it is taken up by God in service of his saving self-communication to sinful humanity.
