In the End--The Beginning: The Life of Hope.In the End--The Beginning: The Life of Hope. By Jurgen Moltmann. Translated by Margaret Kohl. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004. xii and 180 pages. Paper. $17.00. Jurgen Moltmann continues to do us the favor of offering popular, more accessible versions of his larger tomes. This short eschatology eschatology Theological doctrine of the “last things,” or the end of the world. Mythological eschatologies depict an eternal struggle between order and chaos and celebrate the eternity of order and the repeatability of the origin of the world. resounds themes that Moltmann treated more academically in The Coming of God (Augsburg Fortress Augsburg Fortress is the official publishing house of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and also publishes for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) as Augsburg Fortress Canada. , [1996] 2004), though here he focuses primarily on "the personal experiences of life" (p. x). The book's odd title, after a line from T. S. Eliot, points to Moltmann's fundamental claim: that eschatology is not about 'the end," but rather is the good news that in every seeming end God makes a new beginning. Moltmann organizes the book around three beginnings--birth, new birth, and resurrection. Individual chapters vary in length, tone, and quality, in part because they began as lectures in quite diverse contexts. Part One illustrates this point. Chapter 1 is a profound exploration of "the promise of the child." It shows how the evangel of messiah's birth frees us from binding hope to male sons, to procreation PROCREATION. The generation of children; it is an act authorized by the law of nature: one of the principal ends of marriage is the procreation of children. Inst. tit. 2, in pr. and to marriage, but also frees us for seeing in each child the promise of hope. On the other hand, chapter 2 gives an abbreviated cultural history of "youth," from which not even perfunctory theological conclusions are drawn. Part Two offers an excellent chapter (4) on the relation of justice and salvation. It includes a detailed critique of the tradition of justification, and a suggestive discussion of how "justice must be done on both sides" (p. 53)--God setting right both victims and perpetrators. In the end, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Within the body of Christian beliefs, the death and resurrection of Jesus are two core events on which much of Christian doctrine and theology depend. According to The New Testament, Jesus, the central figure of Christianity was crucified, to death, buried within a tomb, and Christ, "God is justified too" (p. 78). Part Three includes accessible discussions of such traditional eschatological es·cha·tol·o·gy n. 1. The branch of theology that is concerned with the end of the world or of humankind. 2. A belief or a doctrine concerning the ultimate or final things, such as death, the destiny of humanity, the Second themes as death, purgatory purgatory (pûrg`ətôr'ē) [Lat.,=place of purging], in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, the state after death in which the soul destined for heaven is purified. , resurrection, judgment, and eternal life, and atypical themes such as reincarnation, modem antipathy toward mourning, and the relation of the living to the dead. I recommend this book for Moltmann fans, pastors who want to review eschatology from a new perspective, and bright laypersons. Given the superiority of Part Three, I might recommend beginning in the end. D. Brent Laytham North Park Theological Seminary North Park Theological Seminary is a seminary located in the North Park neighborhood of city of Chicago, Illinois. It is the sole graduate theological school of the Evangelical Covenant Church. Chicago, Illinois |
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