It is widely expected that the Second Vatican Council will complete the work of the Ecumenical Council of 1870, and supplement the definition of Papal primacy and infallibility by a theological clarification of the meaning of the Episcopal office. In his speculative study Father Rahner shows that the bishop is not only the Pope's delegate, but that he exercises his office in a particular place as the representative of the Universal Church, and of the "College of Apostles", to which Christ entrusted the government of the Church. Defining the essence of the Church as the historical continuation of the Word of God made flesh, Father Rahner sees, in the present-day diocese, in the "Local Church", not so much an administrative subdivision of the Universal Church, but the very concentration of .the Church in her actuality, expressed in the celebration of the Eucharist. Supported by Father Ratzinger's outline of the Church's traditional teaching on primacy and episcopacy, Father Rahner is able to shed new light on the nature of the episcopal office, its purpose and functions in the Church and in the world today.