Eschatology
Eschatology is the doctrine of the 'last things': death, resurrection, judgment, and the final destiny of human beings and the cosmos.
Definition
The theological study of the final destiny of individuals and of the created order.
Scope
This area covers individual eschatology (death, the intermediate state, the immortality of the soul versus resurrection of the body) and cosmic eschatology (the return of Christ, the general resurrection, final judgment, the renewal of creation, and the consummation of the kingdom of God). It treats the recovery of eschatology as central to modern theology, the heaven-hell-purgatory schema, debates over universalism and annihilationism, and the interpretation of the millennium. The presentation is descriptive, surveying positions with comparative notes where apt.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- What happens to a person at death and before the resurrection?
- What is the nature of the resurrection and final judgment?
- What are heaven and hell, and is final loss everlasting?
- How is the kingdom of God already present and yet to come?
Key theories
- Theology of hope
- Jurgen Moltmann's reorientation of theology around eschatological hope grounded in Christ's resurrection, treating the promised future of God as the horizon that determines present Christian existence and action.
- Consistent (thoroughgoing) eschatology
- Albert Schweitzer's thesis that Jesus' message was fundamentally apocalyptic, expecting the imminent inbreaking of the kingdom of God, which made eschatology central to interpreting the New Testament.
History
Early Christianity was marked by intense expectation of Christ's return; as that delayed, the church developed teaching on the intermediate state, judgment, and the consummation. Medieval theology elaborated purgatory, heaven, and hell. Schweitzer and Weiss recovered the apocalyptic character of Jesus' preaching, prompting twentieth-century debates between 'consistent', 'realized' (Dodd), and 'inaugurated' eschatologies, and Moltmann's influential theology of hope.
Debates
- Already and not yet
- Whether the kingdom of God is wholly future (consistent eschatology), already present in Jesus' ministry (realized eschatology), or inaugurated yet awaiting consummation, the last being the broad modern consensus.
- The scope of final salvation
- Whether all will ultimately be saved (universalism), some will be everlastingly lost (eternal conscious torment), or the lost cease to exist (annihilationism), a debate over the justice and love of God.
Key figures
- Albert Schweitzer
- C. H. Dodd
- Jurgen Moltmann
- Karl Rahner
Related topics
Seminal works
- schweitzer1910
- moltmann1967
- bauckham1993
Frequently asked questions
- What does 'eschatology' mean?
- Eschatology comes from the Greek eschaton, 'the last'; it is the part of theology dealing with the last things, both the destiny of individuals after death and the final consummation of history and the cosmos.
- What is the 'already and not yet'?
- It is the widely held view that the kingdom of God has been inaugurated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (already) but awaits its full realization at his return (not yet), so Christians live in the tension between the two.