acquires its contour and colour, its definiteness and necessity. The Word did not simply become any ‘flesh,’ any man humbled and suffering. It became Jewish flesh. The Church’s whole doctrine of the incarnation and the atonement becomes abstract and valueless and meaningless to the extent that this comes to be regarded as something accidental and incidental.”152 A very strong affirmation indeed. But what theological yield does this doctrine produce in Barth’s theology? Barth reflects on what “flesh”