Eschatological Expectations Research Articles

Psychological Features of Eschatological Expectations of Youth with Various Types of Creative Thinking

This article highlights the results of the research on psychological features of eschatological expectations of young people with different levels of creative thinking. Our study shows that 26 % of respondents believe that the End of the World will not arrive. Twenty-four per cent of respondents are skeptical about the likelihood of the Apocalypse, but they admit its possibility. Thirty-seven per cent of respondents believe that the End of Time will not come soon and the remaining 13% expect the Apocalypse very soon. Some respondents (7.5%) indicate that growth in the rate of prophecies connected with the End of the World in recent years suggests that humanity itself seeks it, while 9 % of respondents state the religious point of view in their works. Also 9 % of respondents believe that there will be no destruction of civilization or destruction of the planet but there will be a mental transition to another level of being. The existence of correlation between creative thinking and eschatological expectations was also empirically established in our study, especially in the group of respondents with a high level of verbal creativity. There is no correlation between the index of non-verbal creativity, personal religiosity and eschatological expectations in the sample. These results confirm that our study is relevant and offers great prospects for further scientific research.

Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition 55

Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition 55

Aspects of Prophetic Piety in the Early Modern Period

The article reviews the Muslims’ commitment to their Prophet and their views on his continuing presence as a source of blessing, inspiration and eschatological expectation. It came to shape Muslim religious culture in many regions, and with increasing intensity, over the whole of the early modern period. Attachment to the Prophet was extended to his descendants, who after the vanishing of the universal caliphate came to enjoy particular respect in the Muslim world. Prophetic piety with its doctrinal, literary, socio-cultural and political expressions still remains insufficiently explored for the early modern period, for which the hermeneutics of continuity and transformation are yet to be balanced out. The article offers an overview of central aspects of this field.

Palladius of Helenopolis: One Author, Two Ways to Write

The present article analyzes the narrative strategies and discursive conventions that Palladius of Hellenopolis employed in his works, the Dialogue and the Lausiac History, and proposes the reasons why one author could produce two such disparate works. I use the concepts and approaches offered by reader-response criticism in order to differentiate between an implied audience of the historical narrative as the narrative itself mediates it, and the historical audience, i.e., real people of flesh and blood who read the book in the past. The ways in which Palladius chose to present certain topics (the attitude to wisdom and foolishness, eschatological expectations, the appearance of righteous men, male and female ascetics living together, and the attitude to pride) are important indicators of how he envisioned the audiences of the Dialogue and the Lausiac History, and that, to a larger extent, accounts for the impression of the remarkable difference between the two works. An attempt is made to correlate these implied audiences with the diverse groups in Palladius's immediate milieu and to hypothesize about the real first-hand readers of his works, who were ready and willing to internalize his assumptions and expectations.

Jan Hus Between Time and Eternity: Reconsidering a Medieval Heretic by Thomas A. Fudge

Reviewed by: Jan Hus Between Time and Eternity: Reconsidering a Medieval Heretic by Thomas A. Fudge Carole M. Cusack Fudge, Thomas A., Jan Hus Between Time and Eternity: Reconsidering a Medieval Heretic, Lanham, Lexington Books, 2016; cloth; pp. xii, 277; R.R.P. US $99.00, £65.00; ISBN 9781498527507. Thomas A. Fudge's collection of essays on Jan Hus is neither a biographical nor a conventional historical study. Rather, Fudge seeks to address issues in Hus's life and martyrdom, and in the reception of Hus that are generally not considered. Part I, 'Priest and Reformer in Prague', contains chapters on possible influence on women's spirituality in Bohemia, Hus's sex life (he had no active sex life but did write on sex, for example, accusing Czech priests of living immoral lives, and in a commentary on the Ten Commandments), and apocalyptic dimensions of his thought. Fudge cleverly mines textual evidence (Hus's own writings, those of his predecessors, like John Wycliffe, and contemporaries) to illuminate his subject. The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were tumultuous with regard to religious dissent and eschatological expectations, and Hus was no exception; he expected the end of times, and martyrdom made him an inspiration to 'those left to struggle in "the night of Antichrist" in the shadow of eternity' (p. 70). The second part, 'Martyr at Constance', contains four investigations by Fudge. Chapter 4, 'Hus on Trial', considers the ways that different parties at Hus' trial regarded him. His accusers ranged from 'detached' Jan Železný to Štěpán Páleč, who was a friend of Hus but deemed him as 'proud, arrogant, truculent, and unable to absorb any critique without recourse to defamatory threats' (p. 85). This study makes clear that there were nuances between Hus's opponents, and that some were genuinely enemies where others were not. The next chapter takes up the theme of heresy that dominated the trial at Constance, situating Jan Hus in the late medieval context of heresy hunting. The chapter 'Friendship and Faith: The Prisoner and the Knight', which addresses the relationship between Hus and Lord Jan Chlum, is one of the most intriguing and moving in the book. A sizeable correspondence between Hus and Chlum survives (an 'Appendix' deals with it), and Chlum challenged Pope John XXIII on Hus's behalf after he was arrested (a guarantee of safe conduct had been given by the pontiff). The final chapter in this part, '"The Other Sheep": Reflections on Heresy by a Suspected Heretic', analyses Hus's [End Page 198] writings on simony and other divergent theological views, and probes the idea that he believed that separating 'the wheat and the tares' was too dangerous, too difficult, and that there were 'other sheep' (p. 153). Part III, 'Legacy to the World', is comprised of three chapters that consider the afterlife of Hus. The first argues that he was not a significant presence (as inspiration or rallying point) of the later Hussite Crusade, and questions whether that might be in part because he was radically opposed to violence and killing. The second considers Hus in the light of heretical predecessors and subsequent Reformation heroes like Martin Luther. The six-hundredth anniversary of Hus's death at Constance in 1414 was the occasion that sparked many of Fudge's essays, and a half-millennium has passed since Luther's 'Ninety-five Theses or Disputations on the Power of Indulgences' were nailed to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral, the start of the Reformation, which changed Christianity irrevocably. Chapter 10, 'The Seven Last Words of Jan Hus', situates the words Hus uttered as he left the prison and walked to the stake, and leaves readers in no doubt of the great faith Hus possessed, and his absolute trust in God. Fudge's final chapter, 'Politicizing the Legend of Jan Hus: Problems and Perspectives', is a historiographical study that reveals fault-lines and fissures in Hus scholarship that persist to the present day. This is a lively and readable study, filled with surprises (unusual subjects of research, original methods to get close to Hus's ideas and context, and new conclusions). It will be of interest to scholars of late medieval...

Eschatology and the Western Missionary Movement

The article considers the influence of eschatological concepts, especially in Puritan and Evangelical circles, on the development of Protestant missions from the early mission efforts among Native Americans to the mid-nineteenth century and notes the major changes introduced by a move from the expectation of a period of notable response to the Gospel to the expectation of the return of Christ to a worsening world. It is argued that very divergent eschatological expectations at different times brought stimulus and direction and that eschatology in African and Asian Christianity needs fuller investigation.

The Holy Spirit and Eschatology – with Implications for Ministry and the Doctrine of Spirit Baptism

The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost represents both fulfillment and anticipation of eschatological expectations in as much as Pentecost both fulfills previous expectations regarding the coming of the Spirit and represents a promise of the future consummation of the work of God. This already/not yet reality of the eschaton is evident throughout pneumatology and carries implications for ministry and Christian living and for the doctrine of Spirit baptism. Believers should minister in the power of the Spirit with the aim of the kingdom of God that is already present while longing with Spirit-inspired hope for the future eschatological work of the Spirit that has not yet taken place. Furthermore, Spirit baptism is eschatological in as much as Pentecost fulfills and anticipates numerous eschatological expectations regarding the coming of the Spirit, including not only power for witness, but also a new heart, obedience, new life, and eventually resurrection.

Learning instead of fighting: the impact of rabbinic theory on Jewish identity

Abstract Rabbinic Judaism was a reaction to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and the disaster of the Bar-Kochba uprising in the 1st and 2nd century CE. The rabbinic movement concentrated on the teaching and learning of the Torah, the uttering of God’s will, which was intensively interpreted by the Rabbis. Not success in war, not political independence in a Jewish state, not political power or an imminent eschatological expectation should save and rescue Jewish identity, but the ambitious effort of learning and keeping the Torah up to date as a “wandering homeland”. Often beingaminority group, Judaism had to come to terms with majorities or other minorities finding a position of acculturation, openness and self-assurance. New approaches and solutions were based on old experiences and traditions and enriched with actual necessities and ideas, developing an intellectual Judaism in a diasporic context.

How to expect God’s reign to come: From Jesus’ through the ecclesial to the cosmic body

This study seeks to articulate the universality of the eschatological expectation, in its specifically Christian form, by interpreting it from the perspective of a radical embodiment. This can be understood in a twofold manner. Firstly, the mysterious reality of the eschatological reign of God is rooted in – and thus can be more adequately grasped through the lens of – Jesus’ own body seen as distinct yet not separate from his risen body and, mutatis mutandis, from his extended body, both ecclesial and cosmic. Secondly, for the eschatological expectation to be lived out in an incarnational way, it must be ‘enfleshed’ in actions aimed at social and ecological liberation.The article consists of four sections. Firstly, we explain in what sense body – and more specifically Jesus’ body – is used in our analysis as a hermeneutic key to notions such as ‘risen body’, ‘spiritual body’, ‘extended body’, ‘social body’, ‘ecclesial body’, ‘cosmic body’, basar/kol basar (‘flesh’/‘all flesh’), and ‘life’. Then, the universality of the eschatological expectation is being articulated on two levels, namely, (1) with regard to the social, and in particular the ecclesial, body, and (2) with regard to the cosmic body, with ecological implications inherent in such perspective. Finally, we close the loop by briefly revisiting the notion of Jesus’ body.

From Lucretia to Don Kr[e]ensia, or, Sorry, I Just Had to Convert

Eschatological expectations and messianic hopes aroused by the expulsion of Jews from Spain climaxed in the seventeenth century with the appearance of Sabbatai Tzevi. In 1666, Sultan Mehmed IV, eager to halt the uproar without creating a martyr, offered Tzevi a choice between conversion to Islam and death. Tzevi chose life. Although many Jews were devastated by his apostasy, a nucleus of Sabbatai’s most ardent followers preferred to interpret it as the ultimate tiqqun. This article presents one of the most intriguing Sabbatian literary accounts of their Messiah’s apostasy, the internal Sabbatian version of the romansa “Tarquin and Lucretia.”

The dynamics of God’s reign as a hermeneutic key to Jesus’ eschatological expectation

With this study, we seek to contribute to the theological discussion regarding the nature and the meaning of the Christian eschaton. We will argue that the dynamics of God’s reign provide a hermeneutic key to Jesus’ ‘eschatological expectation’. It is not possible to grasp the full meaning of Jesus’ urgent expectation of the end unless one realises that God’s action is always eschatological. That is to say, right from creation, God is always acting in history in an eschatological way, though only in Jesus does this action reach its ultimate goal. By critically examining the multifaceted views of selected contemporary theologians, we will suggest that Jesus’ eschatological expectation may be adequately interpreted only in light of God’s ‘eschatological reign’. In this context, the tension between the already present and not yet fully realised dimensions of God’s reign appears as a promising hermeneutic key to Jesus’ teaching in general and his eschatological expectation in particular. The article consists of two sections. Firstly, we will give a brief account of the dynamics of God’s reign, interpreted according to the ‘middle way’ between consistent and realised eschatology. In the second part, our focus will be on the eschatological expectation: its development in the Jewish tradition; on how Jesus applied, or rather re-appropriated, it in his mission; and whether or not his emphasis on the imminence of an eschaton was a result of him being mistaken.

What Has Wittenberg to Do with Azusa? Luther’s Theology of the Cross and Pentecostal Triumphalism by David J. Courey

Reviewed by: What Has Wittenberg to Do with Azusa? Luther’s Theology of the Cross and Pentecostal Triumphalism by David J. Courey Christopher J. Richmann What Has Wittenberg to Do with Azusa? Luther’s Theology of the Cross and Pentecostal Triumphalism. By David J. Courey. London: Blooms-bury T&T Clark, 2015. 289 pp. Scholars know that Luther was hostile to much that is associated with modern Pentecostalism, such as direct spiritual inspirations and a prominent role for miracles. In The Third Reformation? Charismatic Movements and the Lutheran Tradition (1983), Carter Lindberg argued that Luther and charismatic Christianity are basically incompatible. Certain Lutheran charismatics notwithstanding, Pentecostals have not done much to dispel this view, preferring Luther the symbolic religious hero to Luther the theologian. According to Courey, Luther and Pentecostalism can become constructive dialogue partners when one sees that in his supernaturalism, concept of priesthood of all believers, apocalypticism, and spiritual experience, “Luther actually demonstrates remarkable sympathies of heart with Pentecostalism” (2). Furthermore, Pentecostalism must be distinguished from “Pentecostal triumphalism,” a type of over-realized eschatology that draws on both restorationism and perfectionism. This, Courey asserts, is not true Pentecostalism, and it yields an uncompromising perspective with Pentecostals as a privileged class who experience mystical union with God and are assured present victory in spiritual warfare. Pentecostal himself, Courey is eager to rid his tradition of this triumphalism, which, as he says, raises expectations that are inevitably frustrated by experience and may be to blame for North American Pentecostalism’s institutional stagnation. Luther enters as a “corrective” to Pentecostal triumphalism, which, as a theology of glory, is analogous to Luther’s opposition both Protestant and Catholic. As Luther suggests in the Heidelberg Disputation (1518), the only cure for a theology of glory is the theology of the cross. To refine Luther’s basic insight into “more than a damning bludgeon with which to decimate the entire Pentecostal project as a theologia gloriae” (115), Courey calls on Bonhoeffer and Moltmann. Bonhoeffer’s penultimate/ultimate distinction correlates to Luther’s internal/external categories, suggesting that for Luther internal [End Page 220] spiritual experience can be seen as a positive but limited (penultimate) phenomenon. Moltmann articulates the resurrection theme that is inherent but largely latent in Luther’s theology of the cross. From these sources, Courey elaborates on a pneumatologia crucis that reorients restorationism and an eschatologia crucis that reorients perfectionism. Between the two stands the Pentecostal baptism of the Holy Spirit, which “fills the gap between god-forsakenness as it is experienced in the broken reality of this age and the fulfilment of eschatological promises as it exists in the age to come” (198). Courey can thus correct three areas of Pentecostal spirituality while “honor[ing] the historical intent of Pentecostalism” (186). Spiritual experience is revealed as always penultimate and oriented toward service. Perfectionism is transformed into sanctification as the destruction of the project of self-justification, with the believer always in a passive role. The miraculous is understood sacramentally and therefore cruciform, with speaking in tongues interpreted as “groaning with creation” in eschatological expectation, and healing recognizing both Christ’s resurrection victory and God’s hidden presence where healing is not experienced. The church and the academy need this type of cross-traditional historical theology. Courey is to be commended for his breadth of research in Luther, pietism, modern theology, and historical Pentecostal literature. His writing is meticulous and clear. Although Courey believes that the Pentecostal orientation towards resurrection may contribute to today’s Lutheran theology, his focus is on the Lutheran contribution to Pentecostalism. Historians of Pentecostalism and American evangelicalism will also find constructive discussion on Pentecostalism’s relationship to fundamentalism. But theologians—particularly Lutherans—will spot some trouble. For instance, Courey fails to see assurance of salvation as Luther’s central concern regarding the enthusiasts, instead focusing on Luther’s disdain for enthusiasts’ mystical extremes (226). Also, Courey’s “sacramental” interpretation of healing and tongues rests on a misconception that for Luther, faith contributes to the essence of the sacrament (236). Finally, Courey obscures the categorical “death and life” nature of Luther’s theology of the cross, describing the cross as [End Page 221] the “reduction of the self...

Der chthonische Dionysos - Zur Wirkmacht des Mythos in den Mysterien

This paper aims to show that a chthonic and eschatological dimension of dionysiac divinity can be found in various rites and cults of the god and that this is not exclusive for the mysteries. Recent archaeological evidence connecting Dionysos with the afterlife and eschatological expectations will be introduced and analyzed. This dimension manifests itself in rites with a private intent (e.g. the Oreibasia) as well as public celebrations of the festival calendar (e.g. the Anthesteria). An analysis of Dionysos’ function in the eleusinian mysteries concludes the overview.

La “tradición de la casa de Elías”: Astronomía, cronología, historia

The Talmudic prophecy known as “ the tradition of Elijah’s house” concedes to the world and to history a maximum duration of something less than six thousand years, distributed in three periods of similar length according to the ‘Void’, the ‘Law’ and the ‘Messiah’. This article focuses on the diffusion of this prophecy in Protestant Europe in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, mainly in Germany, in connection with contemporary eschatological expectation. It also considers the connections with astronomy (great conjunctions, celestial novelties –mainly the nova of 1572 in Cassiopeia– and the decrease of solar eccentricity), chronology and history. In the final analysis, our focus turns to the topic in the work of Helisaeus Roslin and the appropriation of Roslin’s Tabella des Welt Spiegels by Johann Heinrich Alsted in his table Speculum mundi of 1624.

Zombies in America and at Qumran: AMC'sThe Walking Dead, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Apocalyptic Redux

The surging popularity of zombies in modern American fiction, film, and television is rooted in a form of “a-religious” apocalypticism: a fatalistic view of the world and the future without any hope for deliverance. This worldview contains a handful of intriguing similarities with the ancient Jewish eschatological expectations that appear in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This study surveys four prominent themes that are shared between the scrolls and the American hit television series, The Walking Dead: (1) expectations for the “last days”; (2) a persecution complex that produces doctrines of a “remnant”; (3) need for social preservation through “ritual” purity; and (4) “insider / outsider” polemics. This comparative exercise attempts to show how zombies in popular culture are one reflection of our own existential, socio-economic angst that finds expression in a post-modern, post-Christian context.

A Remedy for the World: an Eschatological Dimension of a Quasi-religion, Communism and its Application in a Central European Country, Hungary

First, (1) a definition of religion is offered in order to articulate what constitutes a quasi-religion, then the study moves on to (2) identifying one of the dimensions of proper religion in Commmunism, and underline the crucial role of doctrine. By appling these two theories, it is possible to make some valuable comparisons between Christian religion and communism. It is also argued that (3) eschatology is one of the most essential aspects of the doctrinal dimension not only of a religion proper, Christianity but that of a quasi-religion, Marxism and its inculturated form communism. My intention is to shed light on how remarkably similar (4) characteristics exist between an atheist ideology, dialectical materialism of communism and theist religion, Christianity. These can be discerned when the researcher scrutinizes their fundamental ‘doctrinal’ teachings about the (4.1) conditions of life and human beings in the world and (4.2.) the kind of solutions both, a religion proper and a quasi-religion offered to save the world from evil in the last days, the eschaton of Time. Some selected texts and songs of international and Hungarian communism will be used to show how they understood (a) crucial issues of life, (b) the role of believers (proletariat or church), and (c) the kind of the solutions they offered as a remedy to the issues they identified as problems. All of these will be placed under the framework of “end of times” notion which may be comparable to Christian eschatological expectation of the end of times.

How Wrong were the Disciples about the Kingdom? Thoughts on Acts 1:6

Just before his ascension, the disciples ask Jesus, ‘Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ (Acts 1:6). Commentators have been quick to criticise the disciples’ question as ignorant and mistaken. Three arguments are usually offered for why the disciples are wrong: they were expecting a political and territorial kingdom; envisaging a national kingdom; and assuming it would come immediately. Despite the popularity and long shelf life of these arguments (dating back at least to Calvin), they are not as strong as often claimed. This paper will show that the first two arise from mistaken views about the kingdom of God, and the third, while having some basis, overlooks the eschatological expectations that have been created following the resurrection and prior to the ascension.

Fatima's Revolutionary Image in Fadak fi al-Ta'rikh (1955): The Inception of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's Activism

This article examines Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr's first publication, Fadak fi al-Ta'rikh, contextualising the historiographical depiction of the dispute that ensued between Abu Bakr and Fatima over the Fadak land. Informed by traditional Shi‘i approaches to this episode of early Islamic history, the study locates the text's themes within various Iraqi contexts, including the struggle for the ideological orientation of the state, the quest for a unified Iraqi Civil Code and the place of Shi‘is in the new Iraqi state. The main contention of this study is that through his engagement with contours of Iraqi oppositional discourse, Sadr transforms the traditional image of Fatima from a weak and abused victim of injustice to a revolutionary heroine who fought for Shi‘i political and legal rights. His innovative portrayal of Fatima's claim to the Fadak marks one of the earliest efforts to reinterpret Shi‘i parables in an activist spirit. Sadr is among the first to promote the shift from passive eschatological expectations for redress to temporal confrontation with forces of injustice and to convey the message that protest is desirable irrespective of its chances of success.

EMPEROR OTTO III AND THE END OF TIME

ABSTRACTThere has been much controversy over the role of apocalyptic thought at the court of Otto III of Germany (983–1002). This is in no small part a product of modern scholarship discussing the subject almost exclusively with reference to the so-called ‘terrors of the year 1000’, the result being highly polarised ‘all or nothing’ arguments, which run the risk of underestimating both the complexity and dynamism of eschatological expectation in this period. In contrast, the following paper argues that apocalyptic thought played an important part in politics under Otto III, but one which cannot be explained by the proximity of the first millennium alone.

The priorities of the Catholic social doctrine in the definitions of the Second Vatican Council

The Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church has had a fatal significance in its history. In addition to the important documents that were adopted by the Council, and then creatively developed by the theorists and practitioners of the Church, Catholicism was enriched with a new awareness of significant changes in the world. The Church acknowledged that there have been radical transformations in the outlook and behavior of people, in particular Catholics, in their attitude to issues of faith, to God, to the relationship between God and man. But perhaps the most influential for the further development of Catholicism in the world was the social doctrine of the Church, which eventually turned into a social doctrine. The latter is understood not only as a list of practical guidelines for solving the "social question", but also not a sum of knowledge in contemporary sociology1, but a set of religious beliefs developed by theologians and endorsed by the whole Church in the form of a body of special documents on the Church's views on society and social issues. In addition to the general theological principles of attitude towards peace and relations with society, the Catholic social doctrine contains the historical work of the Church in solving social problems in different epochs, recorded information about the social challenges of the past and present, eschatological expectations and real forecasts for the future of mankind.