Eschatological Community Research Articles

Implications of an Eschatological View of the Church

The church is the “people of God” in a particular way, namely as an eschatological community, living in the present in the light of God's promised future, already made real proleptically in the ministry of Jesus and in his resurrection from the dead. This eschatological character shapes every aspect of ecclesial life and work. In particular, it makes the church an anticipatory sign of the unity of humankind. Among the implications that follow from such a view of the church are ecumenical ones, with challenges at both local and wider levels. The article concludes with some critical reflections on the three great problems of faith and order: baptism, eucharist and (especially) ministry.

EARLIEST CHRISTIANITY IN COUNTERFACTUAL FOCUS

AbstractGranted that the historical Jesus existed and was confessed as Christ and Lord, what might have changed earliest Christianity utterly or even stopped it completely? I propose four events which would have altered Christianity beyond at least my capacity to imagine. What if all of earliest Christianity had stayed among the small hamlets of rural Galilee rather than some of it moving immediately to great cities like Jerusalem, Damascus, and Antioch? What if earliest Christianity had not accepted pagans alongside Jews within the new eschatological community of God? What if three revolts within seventy years, inside and outside the Jewish homeland, had not brought down upon it the destructive vengeance of the Roman empire? What if that same empire had not adopted a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude towards earliest Christianity but made it immediately a forbidden superstition?

The Eschatological Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Study of the Rule of the Congregation

The Eschatological Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Study of the Rule of the Congregation

What Mission Is: Our Understanding of Mission as a Factor for Unity or Division

Drawing on insights from Buddhism and personal experience in Japanese-occupied Burma during World War II, the author brings an understanding of mission to the work of the third person of the Trinity. Faithfulness in mission implies recognition of being enlisted in God's design for the redemption of the world. Christ's ministry on earth was characterized from start to finish by the in-filling of the Holy Spirit. For the church, the eschatological community, mission is the most urgent activity, as history is drawing to a close with the imminent return of Christ. There is also urgent need for the church to express its missionary obedience in unity and not in confusing and scandalous division in the midst of a world, which, though unbelieving, is desperately seeking the way out of its predicament.

The Eschatological Community of the Serekh ha-'Edah

The Eschatological Community of the Serekh ha-'Edah

The Church Against Itself. An enquiry into the conditions of historical existence for the eschatological community, by Rosemary Radford Ruether. Sheed and Ward, London. 1967. 245 pp. 27s. 6d.

The Church Against Itself. An enquiry into the conditions of historical existence for the eschatological community, by Rosemary Radford Ruether. Sheed and Ward, London. 1967. 245 pp. 27s. 6d.

Exploration into God, by John A. T. Robinson, S.C.M. London, 1967. 158 pp. 7s. 6d.

Reviews in this ArticleEXPLORATION INTO GOD, by John A. T. RobinsonTHE CANON OF THE MASS AND LITURGICAL REFORM, by Cipriano VagagginiEARLY SOURCES OF THE LITURGY, compiled by Lucien Deiss; translated by Benet Weatherhead.MAN, CULTURE AND CHRISTIANITY, by Giles Hibbert, O.P.CHURCH AND MISSION IN MODERN AFRICA, by Adrian Hastings.THE CHURCH AGAINST ITSELF. An enquiry into the conditions of historical existence for the eschatological community, by Rosemary Radford Ruether.THE EMERGENCE OF PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION, by James Collins.DEFENDING ANCIENT SPRINGS, by Kathleen Raine.POPE JOHN, by Meriol Trevor.THE TEACHINGS OF POPE JOHN XXIII, by Meriol Trevor, edited by Michael Chinigo.NEWMAN AND THE MODERN WORLD, by Christopher HollisGOD AND MYSELF, by Hilda GraefEDUCATION, CULTURE AND THE EMOTIONS, by G. H. BantockREQUIEM MUSIC OF MOURNING AND CONSOLATION, by Alec Robertson.FEASTING WITH PANTHERS, by Rupert Croft‐Cooke.THE STARVED AND THE SILENT, by Aloysius Schwartz.

The Relevance of the Message for Our Day

TO CONSIDER this topic brings to a focus two contexts wit in which the interpreter stands. In the first place, it reflects the interpreter's attempt to come to terms with himself, with his immediate situation in all its complexity. To measure the meaning of the gospels is to measure the meaning of his own existence within his total environment. And if he be a Christian, any statement about the message of the gospels reflects the fibre of his own faith, his personal relationship to God in Christ. In the second place, the interpreter must speak as an historian, for he is dealing with data of an historical character. He deals with documents and events in the past which condition his existence in the present. The very importance of these documents and events to contemporary faith demands that he examine critically their original nature and impact upon history. This interpenetration of faith and history is no new thing; it has characterized Christianity since the initial interpretation of the events which the gospels narrate. Apart from living faith there would have been no gospels, not to speak of a relevant message therein. On the other hand, apart from concrete historical events, the interpretation of which is the message of the gospels, there would have been no faith. Because the gospels are the product of history and of faith, their interpretation involves a double perspective. Since they are products of history, the student must apply to the gospels historical criteria and methods, seeking to understand their origin, their form, their purposes and functions. The written gospels represent different stages in the crystallization of the Gospel. They contain the precipitate of tradition, both oral and written, in which the first Christian generations articulated their faith. Always pointing back to the eschatological events which ushered in the era of redemption, this tradition always pointed as well to the emerging needs of the eschatological community. And it was always through the medium of living persons that the tradition maintained this lifegiving contact with the crucial needs of Christians, through persons called to responsible tasks of preaching, teaching, worship and defense. Always the core of the tradition was first-hand testimony to the impact of revolutionary events. About this core the tradition developed in response to countless situations, to multiple and mixed motives, which left their mark on he forms which the tradition assumed: proverb and parable, paradigm and poetry, legend and myth, ritual and symbol, miracle stories and the greatest miracle story-the Passion narrative. Because the gospels arose in this way, I am compelled as an historian to adopt the following attitudes toward the message which they tell: (I) The message is a proclamation of events interpreted as divine revelation. Through these events God was believed to have spoken to the faithful, releasing the best news that tragic humanity had ever eard.