The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology
Jürgen Moltmann
Augsburg Fortress Pub, 2004-05-01 -
390 pages
In
this remarkable and timely work -- in many ways the culmination of his
systematic theology -- world-renowned theologian Jurgen Moltmann stands
Christian eschatology on its head. Moltmann rejects the traditional
approach, which focuses on the End, an apocalyptic finale, as a kind of
Christian search for the "final solution." He centers instead on hope
and God's promise of new creation for all things. "Christian
eschatology," he says, "is the remembered hope of the raising of the
crucified Christ, so it talks about beginning afresh in the deadly end."
Yet Moltmann's novel framework, deeply informed by Jewish and messianic
thought, also fosters rich and creative insights into the perennially
nettling questions of eschatology: Are there eternal life and personal
identity after death? How is one to think of heaven, hell, and
purgatory? What are the historical and cosmological dimensions of
Christian hope? What are its social and political implications.
