Constructing Eschatology

Constructing Eschatology
Author: Nixon de Vera
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2022-01-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666702226

This work seeks to provide a critical analysis of the prophecies in the book of Isaiah that parallels the prophetic insights in the book of Revelation. The underlying question is, “To what extent has God foreordained things, especially before and during the final judgment?” The author thinks all that concerns God’s majestic plan, i.e., to accomplish God’s purpose for humanity, is covered in its entirety. God is highly active in foreordaining things, and whatever God foreordains shall be fulfilled in the end. Isaiah’s conception of the interplay between the themes of punishment and healing is central to his eschatological trajectory. In this respect, theologically speaking, the total restoration of Israel signifies the restoration of all humankind. Such an eschatology might accommodate the notion of Christian Universalism.

Jesus Wins

Jesus Wins
Author: Dayton Hartman
Publisher: Lexham Press
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2019-05-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1683591313

Reclaiming our common hope. Too often discussions about the End Times are fraught with wild speculation or discord. But a biblical view of eschatology places Jesus' return and victory at the center. All Christians hold this hope in common. In Jesus Wins, Dayton Hartman focuses on this common ground to reveal why the way we think about the End Times matters. Christian eschatology should be rooted in biblical orthodoxy to inspire hope and greater faithfulness in the present age. That's the point of eschatology after all! Drawing from his own ministry experience, Hartman testifies to the unifying power of Jesus' victory.

The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology

The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology
Author: Jerry L. Walls Professor of Philosophy of Religion Asbury Theological Seminary
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 744
Release: 2007-10-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0199727635

Eschatology is the study of the last things: death, judgment, the afterlife, and the end of the world. Through centuries of Christian thoughtfrom the early Church fathers through the Middle Ages and the Reformationthese issues were of the utmost importance. In other religions, too, eschatological concerns were central. After the Enlightenment, though, many religious thinkers began to downplay the importance of eschatology which, in light of rationalism, came to be seen as something of an embarrassment. The twentieth century, however, saw the rise of phenomena that placed eschatology back at the forefront of religious thought. From the rapid expansion of fundamentalist forms of Christianity, with their focus on the end times; to the proliferation of apocalyptic new religious movements; to the recent (and very public) debates about suicide, martyrdom, and paradise in Islam, interest in eschatology is once again on the rise. In addition to its popular resurgence, in recent years some of the worlds most important theologians have returned eschatology to its former position of prominence. The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology will provide an important critical survey of this diverse body of thought and practice from a variety of perspectives: biblical, historical, theological, philosophical, and cultural. This volume will be the primary resource for students, scholars, and others interested in questions of our ultimate existence.

Perspectives in Pentecostal Eschatologies

Perspectives in Pentecostal Eschatologies
Author: Peter Althouse
Publisher: James Clarke & Company
Total Pages: 439
Release: 2012-03-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0227900324

This collection of essays from established scholars and rising stars offers fresh perspectives in eschatology for the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. The fresh readings of eschatology in this volume are valuable because they demonstrate that Pentecostals no longer need to look to others to interpret their theology for them but can stand as scholars and thinkers in their own right.

Time in Eternity

Time in Eternity
Author: Robert John Russell
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
Total Pages: 456
Release: 2012-06-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0268091773

According to Robert John Russell, one of the foremost scholars on relating Christian theology and science, the topic of “time and eternity” is central to the relation between God and the world in two ways. First, it involves the notion of the divine eternity as the supratemporal source of creaturely time. Second, it involves the eternity of the eschatological New Creation beginning with the bodily Resurrection of Jesus in relation to creaturely time. The key to Russell's engagement with these issues, and the purpose of this book, is to explore Wolfhart Pannenberg’s treatment of time and eternity in relation to mathematics, physics, and cosmology. Time in Eternity is the first book-length exposition of Russell’s unique method for relating Christian theology and the natural sciences, which he calls “creative mutual interaction” (CMI). This method first calls for a reformulation of theology in light of science and then for the delineation of possible topics for research in science drawing on this reformulated theology. Accordingly, Russell first reformulates Pannenberg’s discussion of the divine attributes—eternity and omnipresence—in light of the way time and space are treated in mathematics, physics, and cosmology. This leads him to construct a correlation of eternity and omnipresence in light of the spacetime framework of Einstein’s special relativity. In the process he proposes a new flowing time interpretation of relativity to counter the usual block universe interpretation supported by most physicists and philosophers of science. Russell also replaces Pannenberg’s use of Hegel’s concept of infinity in relation to the divine attributes with the concept of infinity drawn from the mathematics of Georg Cantor. Russell then addresses the enormous challenge raised by Big Bang cosmology to Christian eschatology. In response, he draws on Pannenberg’s interpretation both of the Resurrection as a proleptic manifestation of the eschatological New Creation within history and the present as the arrival of the future. Russell shows how such a reformulated understanding of theology can shed light on possible directions for fundamental research in physics and cosmology. These lead him to explore preconditions in contemporary physics research for the possibility of duration, copresence, retroactive causality, and prolepsis in nature.

Constructing Jesus

Constructing Jesus
Author: Dale C. Jr. Allison
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 784
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441233687

What did Jesus think of himself? How did he face death? What were his expectations of the future? In this volume, now in paperback, internationally renowned Jesus scholar Dale Allison Jr. addresses such perennially fascinating questions about Jesus. The acclaimed hardcover edition received the Biblical Archaeology Society's "Best Book Relating to the New Testament" award in 2011. Representing the fruit of several decades of research, this major work questions standard approaches to Jesus studies and rethinks our knowledge of the historical Jesus in light of recent progress in the scientific study of memory. Allison's groundbreaking alternative strategy calls for applying what we know about the function of human memory to our reading of the Gospels in order to "construct Jesus" more soundly.

Theology of Hope

Theology of Hope
Author: Jürgen Moltmann
Publisher: SCM Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2021-10-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0334060117

Causing a considerable stir when it was first published in Germany in 1965, "Theology of Hope" represents a comprehensive statement of the importance for theology of eschatology - and of an eschatological theology which emphasizes the revolutionary effect of Christian hope upon the thought, institutions and conditions of life in the here and now. Jürgen Moltmann understands Christian faith essentially as hope for the future of humankind and creation as this has been promised by the God of the exodus and the resurrection of the crucified Jesus. God's promise is the compulsory force of history, awakening hope which keeps human beings unreconciled to present experience, sets them in contradistinction to prevailing natural and social powers, and makes the church the source of continual new impulses towards, in Moltmann's own words, "the realization of righteousness, freedom and humanity in the light of the promised future that is to come". This new expanded edition of a theological classic includes his 2020 Charles Gore lecture ‘A Theology of Hope for the 21st Century’, in which he offers a powerful reflection on the nature of hope in our current times.

The Salvation of Israel

The Salvation of Israel
Author: Jeremy Cohen
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2022-08-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1501764764

The Salvation of Israel investigates Christianity's eschatological Jew: the role and characteristics of the Jews at the end of days in the Christian imagination. It explores the depth of Christian ambivalence regarding these Jews, from Paul's Epistle to the Romans, through late antiquity and the Middle Ages, to the Puritans of the seventeenth century. Jeremy Cohen contends that few aspects of a religion shed as much light on the character and the self-understanding of its adherents as its expectations for the end of time. Moreover, eschatological beliefs express and mold an outlook toward nonbelievers, situating them in an overall scheme of human history and conditioning interaction with them as that history unfolds. Cohen's close readings of biblical commentary, theological texts, and Christian iconography reveal the dual role of the Jews of the last days. For rejecting belief and salvation in Jesus Christ, they have been linked to the false messiah—the Antichrist, the agent of Satan and the exemplary embodiment of evil. Yet from its inception, Christianity has also hinged its hopes for the second coming on the enlightenment and repentance of the Jews; for then, as Paul prophesized, "all Israel will be saved." In its vast historical scope, from the ancient Mediterranean world of early Christianity to seventeenth-century England and New England, The Salvation of Israel offers a nuanced and insightful assessment of Christian attitudes toward Jews, rife with inconsistency and complexity, thus contributing significantly to our understanding of Jewish-Christian relations.

Disciplining the Divine

Disciplining the Divine
Author: Paul Fletcher
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2013-05-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1409478254

Disciplining the Divine offers the first comprehensive treatment of the Social Model of the Trinity, exploring its central place within much theological discourse of the past half century, including its relation to wider cultural and political concerns. The book highlights the manner in which theologians have attempted to make the doctrine of God relevant to modern issues and outlooks and it charts the conditions that have necessitated such a reconfiguration of theological analysis. While interrogatory in tone and intent, Disciplining the Divine nevertheless provides a critical reconstruction of a Christian theology and practice which might be undertaken within the political and cultural contexts of the new millennium.

The Pentecostal Gender Paradox

The Pentecostal Gender Paradox
Author: Joseph Lee Dutko
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2023-11-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567713679

The distinct subjects of eschatology and gender equality have seen an explosion of interest in recent decades, particularly within Pentecostal scholarship. Pentecostalism is regarded ideally as both an eschatological and egalitarian movement. However, many Pentecostals have lamented the inconsistency between the early egalitarian impulse of the movement and its current restrictive practices. This situation has been described as the so-called Pentecostal “gender paradox,” referring to the conflicting freedoms and limitations experienced by Pentecostal women. Pentecostals have also recognized the waning eschatological fervor within the movement and its shifting eschatological convictions, leading to calls to rediscover the eschatological heart of the movement. Despite the renewed interest in both eschatology and women's equality, little research has been done to put these two areas into conversation with each other: eschatological convictions are often absent in the debate on gender roles in the church. For Pentecostals, eschatology has often been about urgency in “saving souls” rather than attending to social issues, but could Pentecostal eschatology be the key to (re)discovering greater equality for women in the church? Is the waning of both eschatology and women's equality within Pentecostalism potentially interrelated? For over one hundred years the role of women in Pentecostalism has been debated without a firm consensus. By examining gender solely through an eschatological lens in history, Scripture, and praxis, this work provides a valuable and creative contribution to one of the most important theological and global issues of our time, women's (in)equality. This book is also one of the first comprehensive studies to approach a single social issue solely through an eschatological lens and to provide attention to developing a thorough and methodologically connected eschatological praxis. By uncovering the unified eschatological-egalitarian narrative thread within both the Pentecostal and biblical story, this work suggests that the present end of women's inequality begins with fidelity to the future eschaton of gender equality.