Jüngel is already a weighty voice in contemporary continental theology, and promises to become a thinker of major importance in the history of twentieth-century Protestantism. Because his contribution is so wide-ranging, it is difficult to identify any one area in which his work is of overarching significance. His sophisticated work on the theology of language shows that in certain respects a good deal of English writing on religious discourse lacks a vigorously imaginative understanding of some key features of Christian talk of God. His work on the doctrine of God, and notably on the question of divine impassibility, is particularly fruitful in combining a richly dramatic and narrative account of God's suffering with an alertness to all-important questions concerning divine aseity. But it is perhaps above all in the area of anthropology and theological ethics that Jüngel has a uniquely creative contribution to make to contemporary theological reflection. He puts down a challenge to demonstrate on the basis of a theology of grace that human agency is interesting and important.

At present that challenge is one which Jüngel himself is only in the process of taking up. But it is for all that arguable that his most significant theological achievement may turn out to be that of putting back onto the theological agenda some very large questions concerning the relation of the gracious God to his human creatures.