‘There is no belief that does not need to be reminded of revelation, no action that does not need to be recalled to a necessary knowledge, no man who does not need to be recalled to the freedom of God. In so far as this recollection has not yet taken place—and when indeed has it ever ‘already’ taken place?—men are asleep, even the apostle, even the saint, even the lover. Men are sold under time, its property. They lie like pebbles in the’ stream of time’, and backwards and forwards the ripples hurry over them.’ Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans (trans. E. C. Hoskyns. London: Oxford University Press, 1977), 499.