ABSTRACT
The epilogue sums up the contents of this study to reflect upon the nature of the theological paradigm shift from substantialism to actualism that comes sharply to the foreground in Barth’s later writings. He retains the substantialist grammar of traditional Augustinian theology, Chalcedonian Christology, and classical theism, and fleshes it out with a particularly christocentric and actualistic ontology. This allows him to overcome a number of difficulties arising out of the speculative metaphysics underlying the substantialist ontology of the Western theological tradition. These include the nature–grace dualism in the Augustinian doctrine of creation, the natural theology that inevitably ensues from this dualism, the overreliance on the category of causality that unavoidably attributes the cause of evil to some aspect of God’s being and/or act, etc. While Barth’s ingenuity holds high promises, it remains to be seen whether a theology adequately faithful to Scripture and the proclamation of the Church will be developed on the basis of his new paradigm to serve the outer concentric circles of God’s creation.
