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Eschatology is a theological science that
deals with the end of a human person as an
individual and with the possible end of the
society as a whole from a religious point of
view. The end of the society as a whole is
discussed of Apocalyptic Eschatology in
terms of the cataclysmic end of the cosmos,
that is to say, in terms of the collision
and collapse of planets and stars
accompanied by the curious inter-play of
thunder, darkness and lightning. So, in a
way, the end of the universe and the end of
the human society would happen
simultaneously or, more precisely, the end
of the cosmos and the totality of creation
would occur in an inextricably interrelated
manner. This paves the way for a possibility
of science and eschatology meeting together,
especially when we look into the future of
an individual person, the collective society
and the end of the totality of matter as
such. Science does not concern itself with
the unique significance of the human person
as it regards the human person as a mere
speck of matter having no specific influence
on the immense matter-space-time, continuum
of the universe. Thus a holistic
understanding would require a reflection on
the end of the universe from these two
perspectives, namely, the religious and the
scientific. In the first part I shall
explain the religious point of view and
argue that this classical eschatology is
inadequate to represent the holistic,
dynamic, co-existent human experience of
today. This will be followed by an inquiry
into the possibility of developing a
holistic and dynamic eschatology with the
aid of contemporary cosmology, which may
replace the static and outdated eschatology.
Classical Eschatology
Eschatology is a term conied
by theologians, in the early nineteenth
century, from the Greek work eschatos
which means either the last of final, and,
as such, it was employed to articulate the
theological speculation on the Christian
beliefs concerning death, and after-life
realities such, judgment, resurrection, (and
after-life). It has two components: the
micro-eschatology and the macro-eschatology.
The former deals with the individual end of
a human person, while the latter concerns
itself with the end of humanity as a whole,
thereby striving to give it a social
dimension of eschatology.
In
the early stages of (Judaism and)
Christianity eschatological beliefs had,
indeed played an important role in shaping
the spiritual and moral thinking of its
followers.
 Religious persecution and social
suffering made them think of an imminent end
of the individual and the society which was
to take place at the Second Coming of the
Lord, generally spoken of as Marantha
(Aramaic) or Parousia (Greek). This course
occasioned a later crisis in theology owing
to the non-occurrence of this long expected
catastrophic and cataclysmic end. This has
caused eschatology to develop into two
widely separate branches: apocalyptic and
prophetic. While the former envisaged an
immediate occurrence of the cataclysmic end,
the latter thought of a gradual
transformation of the sinful and unjust
society into a virtuous and just one.
Prophets were continuously admonishing the
Jewish society to return to its old roots of
social equality and fraternity, and hence
the name prophetic eschatology. Let us have
an over view of the mystery of the human
end, of the individuals and the society as a
whole.
The fundamental problems of human existence
have been one of the major concerns for all
religions. Eschatology is a mythical mode of
understanding the complete realization of
salvation as a future event or series
of events that are linked to the present.
For this reason, in Judaism and
Christianity, there has existed a tension
between the present and the future. The
present can always serve the role of staging
the inauguration of the eschatological drama
and the future can always be drawn into the
present through ritual anticipation. The
emphasis on the immediacy of the end has,
however, fluctuated, depending on the
social, economic and political conditions of
the Jewish community. During adverse periods
the eschatology had played an important role
in the social and religious dynamics of the
early Judaism and Christianity.
The ancient
Jewish tradition focused on a transformed
society living in an ideal environment.
Hence its eschatological concerns were of
materialistic and temporal nature. The
Israelite eschatology was based on beraka-blessing-
that consisted exclusively of material
benefits signified by an abundance of food,
crops and numerous herds of animals; long
and healthy life; many healthy and
intelligent children, victory over
adversaries and the permanent possession of
land whose centre was at Jerusalem. Thus the
material prosperity of the individual and
the society was denoted as the external sign
and symbol of God’s blessing.
The Reign of God: A tension between the
present and the Future
The above expectation and eschatological
hope do make up the background of Jesus’
ministry and mission, the overarching
horizon of which was the announcement of the
arrival of the kingdom of God.
Now after John was arrested,
Jesus came into Galilie, preaching the
gospel of God, and saying ‘the time is
fulfilled, and the
kingdom of
God is at hand, repent and
believe in the Gospel (Mk 1:14; Lk 4:43)
The
parables and the miracles of Jesus were to
signify the ushering in the kingdom of God.
On the one hand, the reign of God is ‘at
hand’ (Mk 1:14-15) and ‘in the midst of you’
(Lk 17:21). It was denoted by the signs of
healing, exorcisms and the preaching of good
news (Mt 11 4-5; Lk 4: 18-19). On the other
hand, the reign of God is catapulted to an
infinity time, not realizable in this
lifetime. The strain of this non-reliability
expressed in the prayer ‘Our Father’ (Lk 12:
2-4). Jesus’ preaching upheld a tension
between the present and the future, between
the prophetic and apocalyptic eschatology,
between the visible and the invisible
components of the reign of God. Thus the
immanence (nearness) and the transcendence
(distance) of God’s reign were emphasized by
Jesus. Jesus death on the cross was
described by Mathew (Mt 27:51-53) and Mark
(Mk 15:3-39) as an embodiment of the
immanent eschatology. After Jesus’
resurrection the disciples experienced a new
presence of Jesus in the form of an internal
peace, inner strength, and the out-pouting
of the Spirit, etc. In this respect the
Christian eschatology can be said to be
inextricably interwoven with Christology.
Paul emphasized the Christological character
of eschatology by describing Christ as the
“fullness of time” (Gal 4:4; Eph 1:10) so
much so that the believer is a new creation
(2 Cor
5:17).
Here we find the tension between the
already and not yet aspects of
the arrival of the kingdom of God, a concept
parallel to that of the prophetic an
apocalyptic eschatology. The speculation on
the second coming of Christ and the
consequent final judgment and the reign of
God which would endure continuously for a
millennium was also an important factor
contributing towards the deepening of the
tension which was already present in the
early Church.
Development of Dualism
In
the middle ages there took place an
imaginative, materialistic and simplified
development of eschatology that had
economical effects and caused a tumultuous
revolt in the Church. The unified vision of
the present and the future of the early
Church was further differentiated along with
the concepts of body and soul and of the
resurrection of the dead-individual as well
as the dead- community. In the medieval
period the immortality of the individual
soul was highly emphasized which led t the
development of an individual eschatology
even neglecting its social dimension. During
the twelfth century, purgatory was given a
separate place between heaven and hell which
came to be deeply rooted in the western mind
through the successful literary works such
as Divine Comedy of Dante and the
Paradise Lost of Milton. A
picturesque presentation of the hell,
purgatory and paradise in terms of animal
like demons, everlasting fire, groaning
souls depicted the alienation of the soul
from God. Along with this picturesque
conceptualization of eschatology there
occurred the elaborate distribution of
indulgences that ultimately lead to
Reformation and Counter Reformation.
Due to the successful rise of Classical
physics, a deterministic, mechanistic,
dualistic and all controllable view of life
filtered into the Western culture, which was
to a certain that souls who were to be saved
were already determined and rest would have
to be perished for eternity. Along with this
deterministic and all dominating attitude
towards life and nature there developed an
exploitative tendency that lead to the rape
of the mother earth and women under the
guise of controlling history and the
domination of nature. A secularized form of
eschatology based on domination and progress
termed as naturalistic teleology came into
prominence. The caring, affectionate,
eschatological relative presence of God
affectionate, eschatological creative
presence of God was negated from the sphere
of nature and humanity.
In
the twentieth century, the scientific
developments had shaken these traditional
belief systems such as domination,
determination, exploitation etc., and people
seemed not at all concerned about the
future. Competition and success became the
new driving force for life. The sophist
values of ancient Greece, success, money,
power, authority, force that are available
at the present are given more importance in
life that led to the forgetfulness of an
eschatological dimension of life. People
sought for new opportunities and the
availability of an infinite variety of
consumer products eclipsed the search for
the transcendental and the eschatological
dimension of life. Unlimited progress,
material pleasure and the immersion in the
momentariness of life led the contemporary
human person to the forgetfulness of the
definiteness of death and the ultimate
meaning of life and cut her/his umbilical
relationship with the source of creation.
A New Eschatological Framework
Jurgen Moltmann pioneered a rediscovery of
the eschatological dimension of life for the
contemporary human person in the seventies
and in the eighties through his books The
Theology of Hope, The future of Creation
etc. Moltmann sees the future as something
radically new and different from the
present. He describes God as a God of
promises who intervenes in history from
above. For him future and past have bearings
on the present. “Present and future,
experience and hope, stand in contradiction
to each other in Christian eschatology” (The
Theology of Hope, p. 18, 143). Thus the
future belongs to the active and creative
love and the compassionate and merciful
grace of God. Moltmann is able to discover
newness, transformation and unexpectedness
in the active, creative and compassionate,
mercy of God.
On
the other hand, Karl Rahner described the
importance of experiencing the present
through the gift of the spirit that was
poured out into the world through the death
and resurrection of Jesus and Jesus’
interpenetration into the world through
ascension. Jesus danced into the space-time,
into the universe bringing the whole of the
universe, not only the nature and humanity
into a close togetherness but also the
distant eschatological future and the
immediate present. Thus the Christ-Event
became a continuum of Jesus’ death,
resurrection and ascension, guaranteeing the
graceful and compassionate presence of God
in the creation. This is the solid
foundation on which we can hope for a
consummation in the distant future. God’s
loving presence, creative intervention and
compassionate-dynamic guidance, acting from
the very historical beginning of time
authenticates the transcendental ending of
time. Thus the eschatologies of Rahner and
Moltmann are complementary since the
anamnesis of the active past guarantees the
redemptive intervention of God in the al
consummating distant future. However, these
two approaches have to be refined by
incorporating the contemporary human
experience and the contemporary epistemology
of science.
One of the basic problems in reinterpreting
the eschatological dimension is that the
underlying social and cultural bulwark of
the present day eschatology is still caught
up in the medieval categories. The
conceptual foundation, the active and
organic experiences of contemporary human
person are in direct conflict with the
medieval or classic representation of the
eschatological statements. The mode of
signification is no longer in touch with the
reality signified. The dualism between body
and mind, matter and spirit, heaven and
earth, rationality and intuition, this life
and next life do not translate the
contemporary experience of existence,
society and the world. As Rahner had already
prophetically proclaimed, the new cosmology,
ecology and anthropology had to be seriously
undertaken in our theologizing. (T.I. Vol.
4, p. 324) Vatican II had also acknowledged
the same by emphasizing the radical change
that had occurred in human experience and
the changing worldview. (G.S. 5) The static,
authoritative and dualistic worldview has to
be overthrown and is to be replaced by a
dynamic and holistic epistemology of the
sciences. Any new framework of eschatology
has to be capable of mediation between the
eschatological statements and the holistic,
coexistent and dynamic world-experience.
This emerging vision of interconnectedness,
interdependence and holism raises humanity
and nature into a continuum of
Gelasenheit. In this trans-cosmic unity,
the past, the present and the future are not
at all separated: but fused into the
creative activity of God that will transform
the whole of creation into a trans-cosmic
singularity in the fullness of time. Such a
framework is attempted below from the new
developments in cosmology.
New Epistemology of Science
Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
conceptually revolutionized our thinking
patterns and brought already a new way of
looking at the cosmos. In the quantum level,
the micro particles are behaving in an
inextricably interwoven manner, even
violation the principles of the theory of
relativity. Such an experience is
technically known as non-separable in
space-time. Time and space cannot separate
an entangled, once interconnected absorbs
all matter, the whole of creation and
transform them into the divine. Thus, the
fragmentation between matter-spirit,
creation- creator, past-present-future can
be resolved. Everything submerges into this
Trans-cosmic singularity, oneness, a
togetherness that transcends our dualistic
conceptual thinking pervades the nature and
the cosmos.
The advantages of this new eschatology are
the following. First of all we transcend the
dualistic thinking patterns of classic
period. Secondly we can get rid of the
metaphorical representation of the hell,
purgatory and heaven and replace them in
terms of this Trans-cosmic singularity which
is more appealing to contemporary taste and
rationality. It presents the alienation of
the soul as a deprivation from the
Trans-cosmic singularity. Then we shall be
thinking just in the same wavelength of the
patristic apokatastasis, unification
of everything into the Divine Totality.
Thirdly, we shall be incorporating the
dynamic, holistic, co-existent new thinking
of the contemporary world-experience.
Moreover, its basis is biblical and
Christological. The interconnectedness and
the oneness of the Trinity are emphasized in
the pastoral prayer of Jesus in St. John’s
Gospel. Also Paul’s letter to the Romans,
chapter eight, describes the groaning of the
whole creation for the ultimate liberation.
It is a groaning of all creation to collapse
into the Trans-cosmic singularity. Creation
returns to the creator, i.e., merges with
the Trans Divine Totality. Christ is at the
centre of this new eschatology. Christ is
the force that attracts the individual and
the community into a total transformation
and trans-integration of all reality. This
trans-cosmization transcends all the
bindings of materiality and sublimates to
the Gelasenheit of the Ultimate. A
Gelasenheit of openness,
interconnectedness and interdependence that
incorporates the contemporary world
experience is thoroughly Christological. It
incorporates the Rahner’s vision of the
creative presence and love of God present
already in the world as well as the
Moltmann’s concept of the consummation of
everything in future. The past, present and
future are inextricably intertwined in this
new mode of eschatological expression. This
dynamic, active, holistic and co-existent
eschatology has to replace the classical,
deterministic, mechanistic, manipulative and
fragmentary eschatology.
References.
The New Dictionary of Theology.
Edited by Joseph A. Komonchak, Mary Collins
and Dermot A. Lane, Theological Publications
of India, Bangalore, 1994.
The Anchor Bible Dictionary.
Vol 1 & 2. Edited by David Noel Freedman,
Doubleday, New York, 1992.
Heinz R.
Pagels, Perfect Symmetry, Bantam
Books, Toronto, 1986.
Gelasenheit
is a German word used by
Heideggar meaning an ultimate openness
devoid of all bondage. |
