What Dare We Hope?: Reconsidering Eschatology

Description

In this volume, Professor Sauter challenges the kind of eschatology he describes as a “theology of history,” forcefully represented by Wolfhart Pannenberg and Jürgen Moltmann. He brings this “theology of history” into conversation with: (1) Albert Schweitzer’s “Konsequente Eschatologie,” that is, eschatology that can only be understood as expectation of imminent events, and (2) “radical eschatology,” which deals with the foundation of Christian hope or with why we are allowed to hope in the first place. Drawing upon the reformers’ (Luther/Calvin) understanding of the biblical term “promise,” he defines the task of eschatology as establishing the relationship between justification and hope as well as the relationship between God’s promise and our future. All Christians are called to “give an account of the hope which is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15). Is this “hope” simply within us or among us? To interpret thoroughly this sentence from all perspectives would be enough of an assignment for eschatology. To lead readers toward this task and to introduce them to eschatology’s basic questions and related intellectual experiences of theology is the intention of this book.