The Qurʾānic Critique of Apocalyptic Ideas and a Christian Response

Abstract

The chapter tries to show how influential apocalyptic ideas were in political theology in late antiquity and how much they shape political debates until today. Following Zishan Ghaffar’s Qur’an commentary, it argues that the Qur’an criticizes the political use of apocalyptic ideas within imperial politics and presents an alternative of eschatological thinking without apocalyptic focus. Although this approach is very stimulating and helpful, the paper uses new political theology in the tradition of Johann Baptist Metz to defend the legacy of an apocalyptic thorn within eschatological and political thinking.