Zusammenfassung / Summary
Does the world in which we live, that in all its multiplicities surpasses our ability to imagine and comprehend, actually have any all-encompassing central meaning? One could answer that this is to be sought in the sum of all the fragments of meaning found in the events of human history and in the cosmic processes of life. But the answer that Christians hear in the message of the Bible goes far beyond this: God called the world into being ultimately that there be human beings in it to whom he could and would give his word and indeed his love. Their proper answer to this is, simply, praise and thanks. ln brief, God made the world in order to communicate with it. How this has actually taken place and should continue to unfold, this is what we read in the Bible where we encounter God's “first thought". Jewish and Christian theology has labored to grasp and describe this in ever new forays, and with reference to Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, and the Church - as can be found in brilliantly formulated texts from the various epochs of the history of theology.