'What is the Church?' questions Emil Brunner in his preface. Within Protestantism, it has never been clear how the Church, in the sense of spiritual life and faith, is related to the institutions conventionally called churches. In contrast, Brunner believes, The Roman Catholic Church has a subtly different problem: it has no response to the question of how the phenomenon visible in the New Testament as the Ecclesia is to be related to the papal Church. In
The Misunderstanding of the Church, Brunner finds an answer to the ambiguous and nebulous nature of Church and 'churches', interrogating its disharmony by using the conclusions of New Testament research to contextualise the problem of the Church when confronted. With its contribution to the ecumenical discussion, The Misunderstanding of the Church reflects Brunner's desire to uncover why a real solution of the Church has not been found.
