Christian Understandings of the Future: The Historical Trajectory

Description

Throughout the two-thousand-year span of Christian history, believers in Jesus have sought to articulate their faith and their understanding of how God works in the world. How do we, as we examine the vast and varied output of those who came before us, understand the unity and the diversity of their thinking? How do we make sense of our own thought in light of theirs? The Christian Understandings series offers to help. In this crisp and engaging volume Amy Frykholm offers a tour through more than two millennia of Christian thought on the future. Starting with the contexts of the Hebrew Bible and moving forward, Frykholm outlines the enduring fascination believers have had with future events and the myriad ways they have articulated their beliefs about what the future holds. From the imperial contexts of the book of Revelation to the end times prophecy of Harold Camping, Frykholm presents a thoughtful and insightful tour. 1. Christian Futures: An Introduction 1 For Further Reading 19 Part I. Origins 2. Prophecies and Riddles: Jewish Prophetic and Apocalyptic Traditions 23 3. Parables and Resurrection: Already and Not Yet in the Jesus Tradition 37 4. Seeds and Sheafs: The Eschatology of the Apostle Paul 55 5. Alpha and Omega: The Book of Revelation 67 Part II. Historical Developments 6. Martyrs: Early Christianity 83 7. Time: Origen 103 8. Patriae: Augustine of Hippo 111 9. Legends: Pseudo-Methodius and the Antichrist 125 10. Sketches: Gregory the Great 137 11. Songs: Celtic Sources 145 12. Polemics: Bernard and Hildegard 155 13. Patterns: Joachim of Fiore 169 14. Circles: Dante Alighieri 181 15. Visions: Julian of Norwich and the Black Plague 193 16. Maps: Christopher Columbus 203 17. Urgency: Martin Luther 213 18. Taxonomies: Isaac Newton and John Donne 223 19. Anxieties: John Calvin, Increase Mather, and Second Advent Theologians 233 20. Images: Virgins of the Apocalypse 243 21. Liberation: Eschatology and Enslaved Africans in North America 251 22. Jeremiads: Jonathan Edwards and the American Republic 259 23. Utopias: Postmillennial America 267 24. Charts: Prophecy Belief 1850-1950 277 For Further Reading 289 25. Theories: From Albert Schweitzer to Karl Rahner 295 26. Protests: From Martin Luther King Jr. to Leymah Gbowee 309 27. Clocks: The Atomic Age 319 28. Failures: The Limits of Christian Futures 325 29. Questions: Science and Christian Eschatology 337 30. Towardness 343 For Further Reading 349 Glossary of Terms 351 Index 355