ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the question of Barth’s position on universal salvation, setting the problem in the context of his actualistic ontology and hamartiology in CD IV/3. The dialectical treatment of the possibilities of the apokatastasis and universal condemnation serves as a prime example of the significance of the problem of sin for Christian ontology: the present actuality that all humans are punished (gestraft) by God’s ‘conclusion of all’ in the state of fallenness (Rom. 11:32), according to Barth, is a sign that our existence is determined not only by the perfect tense of salvation, but also by the eschatological prospect of universal condemnation. It is with this actualistic ontology that takes sin most seriously that Barth, notwithstanding his Mozartean optimism towards the Christus victor, reminds us not to take the gracious Yes of God for granted.
