ABSTRACT
Karl Barth's treatment of divine concursus and of angels sheds light on the motives and concerns behind Barth's innovation. The doctrine of concursus, even as it highlights the role of the Spirit, remains Christocentric, because Jesus Christ is both the ontic and noetic ground of the cooperation of Creator and creature. In the natural sphere, the creature has a role, in the act of obedient prayer in faith, in determining the action of God. Barth's first treatment in the Dogmatics of the relation between history and revelation, in 'The Time of Revelation', is strongly concerned with the question of the immanence of revelation in history. Angels offer a genuine service, and in so doing they exemplify the kind of service that creatures can offer to God and their fellow-creatures: The true service of angels, like that of all other creatures to God, is that of witnesses.
