Eschatology As Imagining The End

As society becomes more concerned with the future of our planet, the study of apocalypse and eschatology become increasingly pertinent. Whether religious or not, peoples’ views on this topic can have a profound effect on their attitudes to issues such as climate change and social justice and so it cannot be ignored. This book investigates how different approaches in historical and contemporary Christian theology make sense in reflecting about the final things, or the eschata, and why it is so important to consider their multi-faceted impact on our lives. A team of Nordic scholars analyse historical and contemporary eschatological thinking in a broad range of sources from theology and other related disciplines, such as moral philosophy, art history and literature. Specific social and environmental challenges, such as the Norwegian Breivik massacre in 2011, climatic change narratives and the ambiguity of discourses about euthanasia are investigated in order to demonstrate the complexity and significance of modes of thinking about the end times. This book addresses the theology of the end of the world in a more serious academic tone than it is usually afforded. As such, it will be of great interest to academics working in eschatology, practical theology, religious studies and the philosophy of religion.

This introduction to Christian theology focuses on the central mysteries of the Gospels, the Passion and the Resurrection. The author sets out a comprehensive theology of how we can be transformed and freed from a culture of violence into a new state where we share in the imagination of Jesus.

In this provocative collection of essays, scientists, theologians, ethicists, and biblical scholars look at eschatology through their various lenses.

This book proposes a bold vision of the "end" of human life and the cosmos based on the hopeful vision of Christian faith. In a dialogue with the best of Christian tradition, the natural sciences' conjectures of the "end," as well as Islam's rich teaching on the doctrine of the Last Things, a fresh constructive eschatology is recommended. While based on wide and deep academic learning, the conversational style of the book makes it suitable for various kinds of audiences, from pastors, to students, to scholars, and to interested lay folks.

Since a fuller range of Qumran sectarian and not clearly sectarian texts and recensions has recently become available to us, its implications for the comparative study of eschatological, apocalyptic and messianic ideas in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in the New Testament need to be explored anew. This book situates eschatological ideas in Qumran literature between biblical tradition and developments in late Second Temple Judaism and examines how the Qumran evidence on eschatology, resurrection, apocalypticism, and messianism illuminates Palestinian Jewish settings of emerging Christianity. The present study challenges previous dichotomies between realized and futuristic eschatology, wisdom and apocalypticism and provides many new insights into intra-Jewish dimensions to eschatological ideas in Palestinian Judaism and in the early Jesus-movement.

This seminal work makes a cogent and compelling case for Christian ethics based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Drawing on a profound knowledge both of the history of Christian thought and of contemporary ethical theology, Oliver O'Donovan illumines such important concepts as freedom, authority, nature, history, and revelation. This revised edition also includes an extensive new prologue in which the author enters into critical dialogue with four key figures in Christian ethics: John Finnis, Martin Honecker, Stanley Hauerwas, and Karl Barth.

In this book, Ulrich Kortner addresses the issue of apocalyptic anxiety by offering a theological and philosophical evaluation of the apocalyptic. In particular, Kortner looks at how theology, responding in pastoral sensitivity, should deal with apocalyptic fears and anxieties. Kortner concludes that real meaning and hope for the world is possible only after the world's inhabitants deal constructively with the stark reality of the world's end.