activity to God’s relations with the world. Only because the triune God was already active in himself could he also be active in the world. For Barth something was “speculative,” furthermore, if it proceeded without proper reference to God’s historical self-revelation in Christ. For him the eternal Trinity was not a speculative idea, because the truth of God’s self-revelation in time depended on its being true for God in eternity. Our knowledge of the Holy Trinity is true because it participates