""Postmodern discussion of authority in Western culture has impacted ongoing Christian conversation regarding authority in the church, above all biblical authority. Nafzger, abreast of the several-sided contributions from recent linguistic theorists to our understanding of language and speech, brings insights from the Lutheran tradition into the debates inaugurated in part by Karl Barth. He points the way to fruitful use of Scripture, centered in the transforming gospel of Christ, as the bearer of God's active, re-creative Word in oral, written, and sacramental forms."" --Robert Kolb, Professor of Systematic Theology (emeritus), Concordia Seminary ""Trying to give a new impetus on thinking about the Bible, Peter Nafzger makes use of Karl Barth's theology of the Word in order to overcome those false dichotomies of conservative and modern approaches to Scripture. He sees Scripture in the framework of divine economy, and thus, as one form of the Word. Nafzger makes the reader perceive the Trinitarian and soteriological narrative, which he identifies as the basis of a cruciform theology of the Word of God. This (re-)discovery imparts an unmistakably Lutheran overtone to this sound and inspiring contribution to a necessary debate."" --Werner Klän, Professor and Chair of Systematic Theology, Lutherische Theologische Hochschule, Oberursel, Germany