would have no Subject and would be left in the air like an empty sound. Then the Church, if it lives only by what is said and heard in it, would not be alive; or its life would be merely an apparent life, life in a dream-world with those subjectless images and concepts as the phantasies of its imagination. But if the life of the Church is not just a semblance, the knowledge of God is realised in it. This is the presupposition which we have first of all to explain in the doctrine of God. We have to
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