Stephen M Fields SJ. "God’s Labor, Novelty’s Emergence: Cosmic Motion As Self-Transcending Love." In vol. 1 of Love Alone Is Credible: Hans Urs von Balthasar as Interpreter of the Catholic Tradition. Ed. David L Schindler. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmanns, 2008: 115-40
In classical realism, change produces no novelty in the real order. Karl Rahner challenges this based on a view of substance that places form and matter in an inter-relation. This inter-relation implies that infinite being is immanent in and transcendent to substances. It also implies that the finite order is contingent, not necessary, and therefore freely posited. Freedom entails love. Invested with love, infinite being is thus the personal God. As free Creator, God charges potency with a loving surplus of being. In turn, this surplus explains how novelty can emerge when substances change. As love, God also draws all change to God’s self as absolute final cause.
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