Abstract
In this book, J. C. McDowell and S. A. Kirkland offer an introductory account of eschatology through the four lenses—the apocalyptic, the existential, the political and the Christological. By such doing, the authors demonstrate the richness of eschatology, the distinction between individual and communal concerns, and the necessity of the holistic hopes for God’s work in Christ.
The first chapter begins with investigating the apocalyptic thoughts in Holy Scripture and the apocalyptic movements in the Medieval and Reformations periods. Then, McDowell and Kirkland inquire into the dispensationalist view of the future, the fading of the apocalyptic thinking in liberalism and the resurgence of apocalypticism after World War I. They observe that the thoughts of the last judgment, heaven and hell are oft-appearing, concluding that the apocalyptic thinking should go beyond ‘an actualized critique of abuse of power and misplaced confidence in efforts to inaugurate utopia’ (p. 27).
Chapter 2 explores eschatology from the existential perspective. According to the authors, Origen maintains that ‘eschatology is about ordering our very lives toward their source: God’ (p. 31). By contrast, Julian of Norwich (1342–1416) confirms the apophatic character of eschatology and stresses that by divine gaze alone can humans have hope. In the modern world, Hans Urs von Balthasar contends that all things will have communion with God at the eschaton; they will finally reflect God’s glory and beauty. Rudolf Bultmann’s demythologising eschatology emphasises human decision in faith now. Feminist eschatology is characterised by the concern for ‘the end of human sexuality and gender as well as the importance of women’s experience to the task of theology’ (p. 46). All these theologians show the theological method of ‘from below’.
In chapter three, the authors reflect on eschatology as ‘the politics of hope’ (p. 51). By the survey of the Scripture, they sketch the development of the imagery from the earthly kingdom to the heavenly kingdom. Then, they examine Augustine’s theology of the city of God, which ‘is an eschatological polity into which we are called by baptism into the church’ (p. 65). Moreover, the authors find that the millenarian approaches to eschatology of the seventeenth-century English Reformation are more sensitive to immediate political and ecclesiastical contexts, which finally led to the American secular millenarianism. In the modern age, Jürgen Moltmann highlights that eschatology is concerning ‘the new possibility’, that is, the novum given by God to transform the history (p. 76). This is more specified in liberation theology, which considers eschatology as the purification and transformation in the grass-roots sphere concerning political peace and justice.
The final chapter discusses the eschatological imagery from the Christological perspective. McDowell and Kirkland argue that the New Testament stresses Christ as the eschatological End without denying the temporal end of the world. Irenaeus’s Christological recapitulation leads to an eschatological vision of the communication of the incorruption and immortality in Christ. The Christological concern continues to exist in Athanasius’s theology. Nonetheless, Irenaeus and Athanasius differ in that the latter ‘offers an eschatology of the divine presence in and with creatures that is the condition for the creatures’ presence with God’ (p. 98). The Christological characteristic of eschatology stands more out in Karl Barth’s theology. Barth’s Christocentrism leads to the conclusion that ‘Christ…is the world’s universal and absolute future’ (p. 103).
As a theological guiding work, this book falls short of detailed analysis. Moreover, the authors overlook the neo-Calvinist reading of the kingdom of God, which is characteristic of Herman Bavinck’s eschatology. This reading can enrich all four hermeneutical ways.
However, this book has at least three strengths. First, it presents eschatology both biblically and historically. It probes into biblical and historical data to shape its comprehensive contour. Second, the appended annotated bibliography provides considerable information for further study. Third, it helps us have a glimpse into the critical aspects of various theologians’ eschatology. In light of these strengths, this volume is recommended. All in all, McDowell and Kirkland provide a succinct but significantly conductive introduction to further study on eschatology.