S. W. Sykes – författare

These essays explore the role sacrificial metaphor has to play in theological interpretation of the death of Christ, and ask whether such a metaphor makes sense today. They make clear that the political and psychological connotations of sacrifical language have in modern times given rise to great unease, and examine, in particular, the Catholic tradition of the eucharistic sacrifice, a tradition which was vigorously challenged at the Reformation. Looking at the various controversies from a variety of perspectives, the contributions to the book have a pronounced ecumenical slant, and illuminate sacrifice at the major, formative moments in history, from Old Testament times to contemporary theology. As a whole the collection suggests that claims to an ecumenical consensus are premature; that sacrificial language in the Christian tradition is more complex than is often supposed; but that, finally, the role of sacrifice in Christian thought is still vital in coming to terms with Christianity in the modern world.

This short volume, which emerged from the Karl Barth centenary year in 1986, brings together a collection of essays which makes an important contribution to Barth interpretation. Few would dispute the fact that Karl Barth is one of the great figures of twentieth-century theology, and two decades after his death he continues to fascinate those who study the field and his own thought in the magisterial, unfinished Church Dogmatics. Yet while his impact and influence upon modern theology has been great, Barth has been subject, too, to suspicion and sometimes to fierce opposition. The contributors to this book examine and refute some of the more simplistic reasons why the thought of Karl Barth has had a somewhat limited appeal in modern English-language theology. Writing form a variety of ecclesiastical persuasions, Reformed, Lutheran, Anglican and Roman Catholic, the authors seek to demonstrate at a fundamental level the continuing important of some of Barth's major concerns. Collectively the essays constitute a positive introduction to Barth, to his place in the history of the philosophy of religion, as a constructive theologian, as a Churchman and in specific relation to the modern history of English-language theology.