This volume addresses a theme long essential to feminist and liberationist theology: in what can we hope, and what role should hope play in our actions and our lives? It provides a constructive set of proposals and fills a crucial gap in theological resources as well-known contributors address the theme from their different contexts and fields.
Schwarz guides readers through the range of opinions on the subject of the future, telling how readers' understanding of eschatology has developed and laying out the factors that must be considered when speaking meaningfully about the Christian hope in the 21st century. He surveys the teachings about the future in the Old and New Testaments and addresses the views of Christian and secular thinkers throughout history.
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.
In recent years, more and more Christians have come to appreciate the Bible's teaching that the ultimate blessed hope for the believer is not an otherworldly heaven; instead, it is full-bodied participation in a new heaven and a new earth brought into fullness through the coming of God's kingdom. Drawing on the full sweep of the biblical narrative, J. Richard Middleton unpacks key Old Testament and New Testament texts to make a case for the new earth as the appropriate Christian hope. He suggests its ethical and ecclesial implications, exploring the difference a holistic eschatology can make for living in a broken world.
During the mid-twentieth century Pentecostal theology was co-opted by fundamentalism and its dispensational brand of millennial eschatology. Fundamentalist dispensationalism not only reinterpreted the original Pentecostal vision of the latter-rain outpouring of the Spirit in the last days but undercut its raison d'etre as a people empowered by the Spirit of Pentecost to participate in the kingdom of God. Yet eschatology is much broader than twentieth-century dispensationalism, and Pentecostal eschatology is diverse, reflecting the diversity of Pentecostal and Charismatic spiritualities. There is no one Pentecostal eschatology but many Pentecostal eschatologies. 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.
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.
Christianity 101 is an introductory text for college level courses in Christian theology. The text provides a history of Christian thought in each of the key areas of Christian theology and discusses the major debates and thinkers in the tradition.
The purpose of this handbook is to introduce the reader to Christian concepts from the perspective of U.S. marginalized communities. It explores the interrelationship between religion, community, and culture in the social context of different marginalized groups, specifically those rooted in the African American, Amerindian, Asian American, feminist, gay/lesbian, and Hispanic experiences, and their impact on the development of U.S. theologies of liberation. The handbook gives attention to the history, nature, sources, and development of these theologies and the theologians who contributed to their formation. Of particular interest is how Handbook of U.S. Theologies of Liberation clearly distinguishes both the differences and similarities between these U.S. theologies and their Latin American counterparts. The handbook is divided into two sections: Thematic Essays that provide a general overview of a specific theological theme from the perspectives of different marginalized groups; and Contextual Essays that focus on the specific contributions of scholars from various racial, ethnic, and gender backgrounds.
This important book provides a sampling of liberation theology's use of biblical texts, relating it to the "standard" methods of interpretation in Europe and America. Divided into four sections, the book sets out contemporary readings of the parable of Jesus influenced by a liberationist perspective; identifies the biblical and theoretical foundations of liberation theology, comparing them with the dominant exegetical paradigm in the first world; explores the way in which liberation exegesis affects reading the canonical accounts of Jesus; and argues that liberation theology cannot be seen solely as a third-world phenomenon.
The culmination of Kärkkäinen's multivolume magnum opus This fifth and final volume of Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen's ambitious five-volume systematic theology develops a constructive Christian eschatology and ecclesiology in dialogue with the Christian tradition, with contemporary theology in all its global and contextual diversity, and with other major living faiths—Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. In Part One of the book Kärkkäinen discusses eschatology in the contexts of world faiths and natural sciences, including physical, cosmological, and neuroscientific theories. In Part Two, on ecclesiology, he adopts a deeply ecumenical approach. His proposal for greater Christian unity includes the various dimensions of the church's missional existence and a robust dialogical witness to other faith communities.
