Abstract
I was originally interested in this book as a possible textbook for an undergraduate course on death and eternal life (“eschatology”) as it is advertised as part of the “Guides to Theology” series, which is “written primarily with students in mind.” However, if you are on the search for a textbook of that kind, one which will offer a comprehensive survey of what the Christian faith teaches about the “Last Things,” this volume will not serve your purpose. It does not provide extended theological reflections on death and dying, judgment, heaven, hell (and for Catholics, “purgatory”), the Parousia—topics that attract students to the course on eschatology. To be fair, the authors did warn that “there is no independent chapter on ‘the last things’” (xii).
Eschatology is essentially a history of the ideas associated with eschatology, broadly defined. It groups these ideas under four themes, each with some representative proponents. The first chapter gathers those that can be labeled “apocalyptic”—taken to mean concerned with the last judgment and heaven and hell—and focuses on the apocalyptic movements in the medieval and Reformation periods and modern dispensationalism. The second chapter, entitled “Existential,” is a very capacious umbrella (a procrustean bed?) to corral theologians as diverse as Clement of Alexandria, Julian of Norwich, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Rudolf Bultmann, Catherine Keller, and Sarah Coakley. The third chapter, entitled “Political,” offers a narrower perspective to group together theologians that focus on the theme of the kingdom of God, among whom the authors chose Augustine, the English Reformation, English Puritanism and its New England followers, and Jürgen Moltmann. The fourth chapter, entitled “Christological,” treats the role of Christ in the end-time and discusses the Fourth Gospel, Irenaeus of Lyons, Athanasius of Alexandria, and Karl Barth. The book ends with an annotated bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
Should one want to prescribe this book as supplementary reading for a graduate course on eschatology, it is necessary to provide much theological background and define more clearly the categories under which certain theologians are selected to represent.