The Existential Situation and Christian Experience: Messianism and Eschatological Salvation

Abstract

Giorgio Agamben has drawn heavily on the letters of St. Paul and other Christian sources in order to develop his own unique interpretation of ‘messianism’ and messianic time. His reflections and use of Christian sources, however, often overlook important contextual elements and the theological developments since the Second Vatican Council. This chapter places Agamben’s understanding of messianism and messianic time in a constructive dialogue with the existentially oriented theologies of Johann Baptist Metz, Karl Rahner, and Edward Schillebeeckx. Their perspectives on temporality, apocalyptic, and the ‘existential situation’ form a hermeneutical framework that has commonalities with Agamben’s work but also maintains a fundamental orientation towards eschatological salvation. The chapter presents a critique Agamben’s ‘messianism’ from a hermeneutical-eschatological perspective, while also demonstrating where the integration of Agamben’s insights regarding messianic time could prove to be constructive for contemporary theology.