One should not perhaps make too much
of this, but it does seem to
imply that the pastoral dimension
of the
Church extends to teaching as well, that is, to the feeding
of our minds with sound
doctrine.
Barth's
doctrine of the threefold Word
implied simultaneously the indissoluble unity
of the Word with the texts, tradition and present life
of the
church, along with the necessity
of always distinguishing between the Word and the text, the text and the community, and the present creeds and future possibilities.