Apokatastasis and Final Condemnation: Karl Barth's Dialectical Treatment of Universal Salvation

This article investigates into Karl Barth's treatment of the dialectical problem of the apokatastasis and divine condemnation in its eschatological dimension in Church Dogmatics (CD) IV/3, 70. In English Barth studies, the question of the Swiss theologian's position on universal salvation has always been a vigorously debated topic. The exchanges between traditionalist and progressive Barthian, as well as their rejoinders to conservative evangelicals, have borne much fruit in English secondary literature that in some sense surpasses German Barth studies, in which the question of universalism is not nearly as controversial. Engaging with contemporary English Barth studies on the question of the theologian's take on universalism would be helpful for the cause of Sino-Christian theology (in the broader and narrower sense of the term) in developing deeper understanding of the subject matter. The first part of this article is a brief introduction to the status quo of the debate among the English-language scholarship. The main body of the article examines the hamartiology of CD 70 to construe a new and surprising feature of Barth's actualistic ontology therein, namely, a twofold two-way determination of world-historical actuality from above and from below, as well as by the perfect and future tenses of God's act. In this actualistic framework Barth rejects universalism and calls for a reverent expectation of final condemnation, while embracing the possibility of an apokatastasis in hope and prayer. The author argues that Barth's position on universalism is a dialectical "reverent agnosticism".