Through close readings of Karl Barth's theological work from 1916 to 1929 this book offers an exposition of the doctrine of sanctification in his earlier theology, arguing that from his earliest writings after 1915 sanctification was one of the key theological components used in describing the encounter between God and humanity in a positive and concrete manner. This book both fills an important gap in Barthian scholarship and responds to the appeal by other recent interpreters of Barth's theology for a more balanced and careful exposition of his work. Ethan Worthington develops Eduard Thurnyesen's wonderfully insightful comments: Karl Barth's theological thinking was from the beginning directed to the life of man . . . the life of man, on the one side, and on the other the Word of God that meets this life, lays hold of it, and transforms it.'"