Eschatology

Ideas about a possible end of time have inspired hope in some historic situations and fear in others. Handel's Messiah proclaims in majestic tones, "The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ" (Revelation 11:15). Yet in works of art from many centuries, faces show terror before a final judgment. What array of ideas could lead to such widely divergent responses?

Eschatology is about end times or last things. Therefore it concerns the future, but it almost always also has a connection with the present. In many forms, its social-psychological meaning is in the longing for a transformation of present conditions of life and the social order. It is one way by which people of religious faith have come to terms with the experience and the theological problem of suffering. An eschatological vision of reality, especially seen as the destiny or goal of humanity, affects the way people view and live their lives in the present. Beliefs about history's end in the kingdom of God have fueled movements of social reform, while some apocalyptic groups who expect destruction to come have sometimes brought it about.

The overall category of beliefs labeled "eschatology" includes many variations. Most scholars agree that ideas about the kingdom of God are an integral part of any eschatology. Millennialism claims that the end will mean a thousand-year reign of Christ within history and is especially prevalent among American Evangelical Christians. Apocalyptic beliefs involve an extreme crisis or catastrophic end. Whether the end refers to human history, to the planet Earth, or to the universe is not usually specified.

Ideas about an end of time pertain especially to Western monotheistic religions and accompany a linear view of history. Eschatology is highly significant in American Christian thought and is also central to many religions that have begun in America, such as Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many other movements.

Historically, some aspects of eschatological belief are derived from the ancient religion Zoroastrianism. Its founder, Zarathustra, taught that ethical behavior is connected to judgment at the end of the world. The dominant way that the idea of a radical historical change came to influence Western religious thought was through the Hebrew prophets. Isaiah wrote of a time when there would be no more suffering, when the lion would lie down with the lamb. Other prophets, such as Amos, wrote of the Day of the Lord, a time of judgment and punishment for unjust or merciless acts. Prophetic thought influenced later Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in differing ways. The prophets warned that unless the poor and the oppressed were treated with justice, destruction would follow. They also promised that suffering would cease someday. It is with the later prophet Daniel that visions of apocalyptic events come to the fore.

It is likely that apocalyptic Jewish beliefs prevalent at about the time of Jesus influenced his teaching as well as that of early Christianity. The idea that Israel had God as its ruler is the other major source of the idea of the kingdom of God in Jesus' teaching, where it is key. Scripture scholars have debated the meaning of the kingdom or reign, especially in the past several centuries. With Jesus' promise to return, many Christians in the early movement trusted that the event would take place in their own generation. Ever since, there have been speculations about "the day and the hour," though in the gospels Jesus warns against this. In some New Testament passages it appears that the kingdom of God is fulfilled in Jesus' life and ministry. Others indicate that it is within each person, while others suggest that it is still to come and will arrive like a thief in the night.

Varying interpretations have been given differing emphases depending on the time and place. St. Augustine developed the idea of two cities, the city of God and the city of humanity. More than a millennium later, the reformer Martin Luther (1483–1546) wrote of the two kingdoms. Christian thinkers of all times have tried to understand the relationship between the kingdom of God and the political realm in which they lived. Always the debate has included consideration of ethics: How are we to live? How are we to relate to the society around us? How do our acts relate to our destiny?

In modern times, especially with the influence of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) and the Enlightenment, the kingdom of God came to be seen as an ethical kingdom and was sometimes associated with the culture of the day. Emphasizing a truly historical and future-oriented ("consistent") eschatology, thinkers such as Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) and Johannes Weiss (1863–1914) brought a crisis to the biblical theology of their day. For if Jesus believed that God would bring about an imminent apocalypse, he was wrong and, according to the thought of the day, this called all of his teaching into question. It was not long before scholars began to write of a "realized eschatology," suggesting that the kingdom was fully present and realized in Jesus' life and ministry. Though the varying interpretations of the kingdom of God have been debated, most major theologians of the twentieth century agree on the importance of eschatology for Christian thought, many emphasizing some combination of the above interpretations.

In American religious thought, ideas about the coming kingdom of God have played a highly significant role and have influenced American social and political history. From the landing of the Puritans on the North Atlantic shore, religious and political leaders inspired the English-speaking settlers with the idea that it was their mission to build the new kingdom of God in America. They used biblical images such as "city on a hill" and phrases such as "witness into the wilderness." Belief that America was the new Israel in a promised land contributed to ideas about the manifest destiny of the United States.

The Social Gospel movement, led by Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918), carried forward the American religious ideal of transforming human society into the kingdom of God and called on the churches to fight the forces of evil in society. In 1937 H. Richard Niebuhr (1894–1962) published the book The Kingdom of God in America. In this book he outlined the history of the idea and its importance in relation to American social and political life.

In the latter half of the century, eschatology and the kingdom of God played a role in the social justice and peace movements of the 1960s and 1970s and in the various liberation theologies and came to the fore in the theology of hope. The civil rights movement, which began long before the 1960s, had at least some roots in eschatological hope, a hope that was not just for the far-distant future. Martin Luther King, Jr., emphasized the idea of the kingdom of God and drew upon the writings of Rauschenbusch. King developed the idea of the "beloved community," the ultimate goal of the Christian church. The primary aim was to seek reconciliation and the formation of a community based on love. King's speeches were filled with eschatological imagery, which is one of the features that gave them such power: "I have seen the promised land." Other justice movements combined religious and secularized versions of "bringing in the kingdom" with general religious and secular motivations for justice and equity.

Beginning in the late 1960s, various versions of the theology of hope became popular in American churches and seminaries. Jürgen Moltmann, Wolfhart Pannenberg, and Johannes Metz were three of the German theologians associated with this eschatological theology, and many of their books were quickly translated into English. The philosopher Ernst Bloch and his major work, The Principle of Hope, influenced both Moltmann and Pannenberg. Metz's eschatologicalpolitical emphasis influenced the development of liberation theologies, especially Latin American theology.

Pannenberg drew upon the eschatological emphasis in New Testament scholarship to call attention to the coming reign of God as a future event that influences the present. For Pannenberg, meaning in history comes only with the whole of history, including its ending. So the end of time, seen in the gospels as the promise of God's reign of love, is that which not only ends history but also brings it to fulfillment and completion. The promised coming of Christ is related to the belief in Jesus' resurrection, as the "inbreaking" of the kingdom of God in history. The end of time is thus related proleptically to the resurrection and to the community of believers. The future of God draws the present world toward itself in love and anticipation. Moltmann's widely read Theology of Hope placed similar emphasis on the future and God's reign of love.

In the environmental movement, the contemporary wave of which began in the 1960s, apocalyptic images have been used to motivate people to change their behavior in regard to environmental issues. In fact, at the end of the century, the fear of environmental catastrophe rivals the fear that a nuclear holocaust will end the world. At the same time, the belief of millennialists and apocalypticists that the world will end by God's plan anyway has been blamed for careless and irresponsible attitudes and behaviors regarding the world ecosystems. Along with others, several theologians such as Rosemary Radford Ruether and Catherine Keller have raised questions about apocalypticized eschatology, and instead emphasize human relatedness to all of creation and the need to nurture and care for all of life, so that we will not hasten its demise.

Finally, an important development since the 1960s in American religious thought (associated with an international movement) that is pertinent to eschatological beliefs is the growing dialogue between religion and science. For many theologians who also believe that it is important to understand the natural scientific descriptions of the world, scientific cosmology offers a challenge to teachings about the end of the world or of the universe. Theologian-scientists such as Robert Russell and others consider what scientific cosmology and theological cosmology have to offer one another.

For popular culture, the end of the world may mean the latest box-office thriller. But there are also many Americans whose lives are given meaning and purpose through the belief that the end and goal of history are in God's love and promise.

See alsoApocalypse; Bible; Future of Religion; Millennialism; Second Coming.

Bibliography

Keller, Catherine. "Women Against Wasting the World: Notes on Eschatology and Ecology." In Reweavingthe World: the Emergence of Ecofeminism, edited by Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein. 1990.

Moltmann, Jürgen. The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology, translated by Margaret Kohl. 1996.

Niebuhr, H. Richard. The Kingdom of God in America. 1937; reprint, 1988.

Pannenberg, Wolfhart. "Theology and the Kingdom of God." In Theology and the Kingdom of God, edited by Richard John Neuhaus. 1969.

Russell, Robert John. "Cosmology from Alpha to Omega." Zygon 29 (1994): 557–577.

Stone, Jon R. A Guide to the End of the World: PopularEschatology in America. 1993.

Lou Ann G. Trost