ABSTRACT
This chapter contends that in 1942 in particular, Karl Barth discovers the tools to forge an eschatological understanding of creation and history through a dramatic christological perspective. What emerges is an eschatology that views Christ as both creation's Protos and Eschatos who has realised reconciliation and redemption in place. Although Barth continues to use the neutral nouns, testifying to their biblical basis, they are christologically controlled. Human freedom is restricted by all other commands, "powers and dominions and authorities", and obedience to them is servile. But, obedience to the only true God is freedom because it is gospel, as the doctrine of election impresses. John Hick tentatively claims that Barth maintains the O felix culpa in the sense that evil 'exists' in order "to make possible the supreme good of redemption". Moreover, Barth's time-eternity model derives from his involvement in a much more modest intellectual project than that of advocating a philosophical resolution to an academic puzzle.
