Book Review: T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Eschatology

Abstract

T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Eschatology. By Markus Muhling. Translated by Jennifer Adams-Massmann and David Andrew Gilland. London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2015. xv + 411 pp. $128.00 (cloth).There are at least four things any potential reader should know about this volume. First, it is not one which could be subtitled A Modest Proposal. The following sentence illustrates nicely ambition found within: Having considered question of relationship of time and space to eternity and infinity, we now turn to search for what is good, true, and beautiful (p. 133).Second, this is systematic theology undertaken with a penchant for interdisciplinary conversation, yet which has not lost a sense of importance of attentiveness to divine self-revelation for discipline.Third, this is systematic theology with a characteristically German theological method. At each stage, problems are posed and biblical and traditional solutions as well as contributions of non-theological disciplines are reviewed, before a synthetic attempt at resolution is made with help of a conceptual criteriology (p. 335).Finally, Miihling espouses a relational ontology, both in terms of trinitarian doctrine and theological anthropology (p. 327 offers dense recapitulation of much of argument). More often than not this is deciding factor in final analysis, leading him to one solution rather than another. Similarly, a strong conviction about positive achievement of Reformational construals of soteriology does a great deal of work in sorting what factors surveys make it through to positive affirmation.In terms of how book proceeds, readers looking simply for a traditional catalog of Last Things will be disappointed. On other hand, anyone acquainted with modem theology's transposition of eschatology into something quite different will be less surprised. The German edition (reproduced here with some changes) carries a subtitle instructive in this regard: it would translate as Systematic Theology Perspective of Eschatology.This subtitle helps explain why Handbook begins with an intense orientation regarding epistemological issues that attend eschatological doctrine and an introduction to Miihling's understanding of doctrine of God. The first section pursues linguistic analyses of concept of action and logic of hope. While it is unclear to me whether these philosophical digressions add as much to argument going forward as their inclusion at such length merits, it may simply be that their significance further downstream could have been rendered explicit more often. In any case, framing investigation from below like this is perhaps more theological than at first appears: it is a way of reflecting upon one of driving questions of eschatology-What dare we hope?-in a manner that invites subsequent theological analysis.The third chapter engages more familiar prolegomenal concerns and stands partway between initial scene-setting and more direct later chapters, since under rubric of the Eschaton it explores those high-conceptual themes of eternity and time, infinity and space, and transcendentals. …