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This article elucidates the significance of eschatology—particularly what may be called negative eschatology—for the task of political life. Through tracing some of the appeals to eschatological notions in recent political thinking and movements, we demonstrate some of the dangers of eschatology as a resource for political theology. The article then engages with the version of negative eschatology rendered by Vincent Lloyd, which holds out the possibility of experiencing a foretaste of the eschaton in moments of struggle against domination. The form of political activity in focus here is a struggle to dismantle that which does not belong to the eschatological order of justice—that is, struggling against what the eschaton is not. We bring this account of the relationship between the eschaton and the political into conversation with Emmanuel Levinas's conception of infinity, and offer an account of negative eschatology as an invitation into living in relation to a fullness that is ever unfolding. Political activity undertaken in this light is oriented towards opening the conditions of possibility for the contingent transformation of injustice and led by those at the margins. We suggest, therefore, that in the dismantling of what eschatology is not, it is possible to glimpse what the eschaton might be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In his book Astrobiology and Christian Doctrine, Andrew Davison conducts an in-depth study of the implications of the search for life in the universe for the main themes of Christian theology, and develops new perspectives on them, particularly in the field of Christology. His reflections on eschatology lead me to introduce the vision developed by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, based on faith in the cosmic Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying scientific theology to possible existence of astrobiology, aliens, and Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (ETI) invites constructive analysis along at least four lines of inquiry. First are potential parallels between advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and biological ETI. Second is the extent to which angels offer precedents for thinking about astrobiology given that the Bible, for example, portrays angels as intelligent beings who interact with the natural, physical world. Third are cosmological and eschatological implications about the ends of time and space. Finally, are questions about whether God, as Christians affirm about Jesus, ought to incarnate as—or into—every intelligent life form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the intricate evolution of Chilean Pentecostals from apolitical and socially detached citizens to ardent supporters of the country's dictatorship. The aim is to challenge prevailing historical assumptions that explain the transformation through factors exogenous to the movement as well as long-held interpretations of their eschatological dispositions. It looks to revisit their early theological commitments and millennial concerns, complicating scholarly claims that the movement reflected a clear premillennialist orientation which has been held up to explain their enduring reluctance to enter the political sphere prior to the 1973 military coup. By examining early Pentecostal publications, this article reveals a religious movement shaped by pneumatological expressions, Methodist beliefs and local autonomy. Contrary to normative interpretations, it argues that Chilean Pentecostals' longstanding unwillingness to engage in political change was not a forgone conclusion rooted in their theological commitments. Political engagement was always a possibility rather than a clear deviation. This research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of Chilean Pentecostalism, shedding light on the complex interplay of theology, historical context and scholarly interpretations that have shaped our understanding of the movement's political trajectory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socrates has an implicit argument for his afterlife story that concludes the Gorgias, with two key premises. One is at 527a–c, where he summarizes the ethical position he has been arguing for through most of the dialogue, regarding the intrinsic goodness of justice, the intrinsic badness of injustice, and the desirability of rehabilitative punishments. The second occurs at 507e–508a, where Socrates asserts that the universe is held together by justice. This argument explains why Socrates regards his story as a logos, not merely a muthos. It also helps us understand the nature of the rewards and punishments in his story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spread and rooting of Ash'arism in the Maghrib region dates back to the IV-VIth centuries of Hijri. During these centuries, many scholars grew up in the region and their thoughts and works have survived to the present day. One of these scholars is Ibn Humayr al-Sabtī (d. 614/1217). By his time, Ash'arism had reached a wide scholarly accumulation in the region. Thus, he had the opportunity to closely follow the scientific and intellectual development of Ash'arism. He also witnessed the manipulative discourses of superstitious groups such as the Mubtılîn and the Mulhidin on the religious thoughts of the people of the region, and the objections raised by the opponents of Kalām on various theological issues. In this way, he realised that religious arguments would not be enough against these groups and individuals and came to the conclusion that rational arguments should also be used. Therefore, he wrote his theological work Muqaddimāt al-merāshid ilā 'ilm al-'aqā'id fī def'i shubuḥāti al-mubtılîn wa'l-mulhidîn. In this work, he tried to explain the theological issues against the claims of the mentioned groups with a defensive approach based on rational foundations. In this defensive approach, one of the issues that he focused on and discussed the most was the issues of the eschatology (sem'iyyāt). Because of the abundant use of narrative evidence in these issues, the objections of the opponents emerged through them. This situation necessitated the use of a theological method based on reasoning in addition to the use of narrative evidence. Therefore, the theoretical basis of Ibn Humayr's method based on reasoning while justifying the issues of the eschatology against his opponents was daqīq al-kalām (kalām cosmology). In this framework, he attempted to respond to the objections and claims of extremist groups and individuals on the questions of the eschatology by justifying them in terms of the elements of the universe such as substance, accident and body. In fact, in addition to using theological cosmology to understand and make sense of the universe, theologians have also used it in matters such as the eschatology. It can be seen that Ibn Humayr also deals with this area. So much so that he thought that anyone who did not have knowledge of kalām cosmology would be incomplete in the study of the sem'iyyāt, and he stipulated that the subjects of jalīl al-kalām and daqīq al-kalām must also be known. From this point of view, this study will examine Ibn Humayr's views on sem'iyyāt in theological thought and the distinctive aspects of his approach. It will attempt to identify the differences and similarities of these aspects with the Ash'arite thought to which he belonged and his contribution to Ash'arite thought in the Maghrib region. It will also examine how Ibn Humayr constructed and grounded the issues of the nature of the torment of the grave, the unity of soul and body, recreation/i'âdah, and the eternity of heaven and hell on the basis of daqīq al-kalām. It analyses how he uses the properties of substance in his justifications, such as its permanence in itself, its inability to be abstracted from accidents, its mutajānis/mutamāṣil, and its inability to be dissolved. Similarly, the method of explaining and interpreting the properties of accidents, such as non-existence without substance, non-continuity, and the way they occur in space, will be discussed. On the other hand, since Ibn Humayr is less known compared to other Ash'arite scholars, it also aims to introduce him. As a result of the study, it was seen that Ibn Humayr based the Ash'arite understanding of cosmology on the issues of the eschatology against his opponents in the Maghrib region where he lived and prepared the ground for a correct understanding of religious thought. In addition to this, he presented the issues of the eschatology in a holistic manner, without separating the issues of daqīq al-kalām and jalīl al-kalām. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The word proper to theology in the question of evil is neither ponerology nor theodicy, but soteriology. Evil acquires its true meaning in a profound theology of salvation which integrates the doctrine of creation, Christology and eschatology. For this reason, Christian theology tries to understand evil in the context of salvation history, which has its origin in the Father's plan, its realization through the Son and its perfection through the action of the Spirit. Christian faith and theology confront the reality of evil with the hope that Christ's resurrection gives us, while we walk by the power and action of the Spirit who leads us to definitive beatitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys recent studies about John the Baptist, focusing on disputed issues in contemporary research about this historical figure. After briefly reviewing the history of research as a framework for this survey, a presentation of the major contributions on John during the last decades follows. The article then reports on the status quaestionis of some still debated subjects related to the Baptist, such as the content of his message, portrayal as Elijah, relationship to Jesus, baptism, the account in Josephus, association with the Essenes/Qumran, and other minor matters. The work concludes by assessing what the author considers the most important research shifts and contributions of studies on John the Baptist in recent scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jürgen Moltmann made theological history with his major works Theology of Hope (1964) and The Crucified God (1972), which have appeared in many editions and translations. He became the most internationally influential German Protestant theologian of the second half of the twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Prague Circle, under the leadership of Max Brod (1884–1968), was a prominent literary group that flourished from 1900 to 1939. This era witnessed a struggle between emancipation and assimilation for German-speaking Jews within the Habsburg and German Empires. The Prague literati possessed a unique capacity for Dialogfähigkeit, which played a crucial role in safeguarding them against aggressive nationalism. The Patmos Circle, led by Martin Buber (1878–1965) and Franz Rosenzweig (1886–1929), transformed this readiness for dialogue into dialogical thinking: a distinct capability and an action-plan to combat the prevailing forms of confessionalism and nationalism during that period. Taking the concept of Dialogfähigkeit as a crucial cornerstone of Prague and Patmos literary groups, this paper analyzes some of the key moments in its development. The aim of this paper is to highlight a certain cross-pollination of ideas between the Prague and Patmos groups without arguing for explicit vectors of influence between them. This article places the Patmos Circle in its proper context through an examination of their publication, the quarterly magazine Die Kreatur (1926–1930). By focusing on the concept of New Humanism and the end of history, this research will analyze two modernist masterpieces authored by members of the Patmos Circle: Karl Barth's Römerbrief (1919) and Franz Rosenzweig's Der Stern der Erlösung (1919). Through a study of the evolution of dialogical thinking within the Patmos Circle, I contend that the term "circle" is more appropriate than "school" to describe such associations, as it acknowledges the diverse and overlapping group interests that united its various members. What distinguishes the Patmos group from the literary-aesthetic circles in Prague is their commitment to eschatology within a critique of progress and their pursuit of a New Humanism based on the value of dialogue as a vital occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I wish to challenge one of the basic assumptions permeating contemporary vampire studies concerning the exclusivity of the category of 'vampire' for the analysis of modern European lore. To do so, I deploy the concepts of the 'vampire' (a literary figure of a tragic, undead aristocrat feeding on blood) and 'horror' (a narrative evoking fear, repulsion and fascination) as heuristic devices to the study of biblical accounts. Specifically, I examine the Old Testament passages featuring the Hebrew term rephaim which denotes one of the Canaanite tribes ('Rephaites') and the inhabitants of the underworld ('revenants'). The analyses of the Scriptural sources against their Ugaritic background prove the adequateness of these heuristic devices: the texts exhibit formal features prompting the experience of awe and terror and portray the rephaim as a semi-divinized undead aristocracy. The adoption of this theoretical and methodological framework permits the further exploration of biblical vampires, while in the overarching scope, the hereby proposed vampire complex can serve as a potent tool to be deployed in a variety of other non-European sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Thirteenth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) marked a pivotal moment for global Lutheranism. The assembly served as a platform for Lutherans worldwide to converge in Krakow, where they collectively discerned their shared future. While critics have claimed that the LWF has departed from its confessional identity, the Thirteenth Assembly of the LWF nevertheless demonstrated continuity with its historical and confessional roots, now underscored by a renewed focus on hope as the central theological principle. Numerous contextual and global challenges necessitate a theological agenda for a unified movement forward. Through an eschatological lens of hope, Lutherans globally are encouraged to deepen their reflection on biblical interpretation, theological contributions, and ecclesial missional practice. A realistic understanding of Christian hope shapes how one thinks and acts in the here and now in the most difficult of circumstances. This shift is already evident in the new LWF strategy and has begun to manifest regionally. This essay is an invitation to a hopeful theological agenda for the Lutheran communion and aims to make a significant contribution to world Christianity and society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the subject of Christian eschatology is examined from the perspective of Erich Fromm and Karl Rahner. According to Erich Fromm, from the first to the fourth century AD, there were two general beliefs about the status of Christ, and a psychoanalytic approach to the political, social, and economic situation of the people of Jerusalem can reach their fundamental reasons. By adopting the objective method, which is the essence of Freud's and Marx's approach to religion, Fromm reduced the eschatological movements of the first Christian century and the avoidance of these movements in the fourth century to hidden factors in the collective character of people and their economic motivations. However, Karl Rahner critiqued the reductionist approach to the End of Time with a Thomistic reading of Heidegger's phenomenology. According to Rahner, the Marxist interpretation of the end of Time is based on a linear image of Time and ignores the mystery of the Absolute future. By proposing the concept of the Absolute future, Rahner believes that a Christian person reaches self-understanding in the light of belief in “the end of time”, but the Marxist approach, by adopting a static approach to man, cannot understand the essence of the theological belief in “the end of time”. Despite the challenges raised by the Thomistic reading of Heidegger's ontology, Rahner's point of view is more defensible regarding methodology in discovering the capacities of Christian theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the phenomenology of time and eschatology in the thought of Jean-Yves Lacoste, including his recent book on the philosophy of history. Lacoste's idea of "the hidden present" is examined within the context of his broader theological and philosophical framework, with a particular focus on the way it addresses the intersection of temporality and eternity. Human temporality is characterized by finitude and death, which are interpreted both philosophically—under the influence of Heidegger's philosophy—and theologically. Using Husserlian and Heideggerian concepts, Lacoste proposes a theologically inspired conceptual network: phenomenological reduction versus theological reduction, world versus creation, death versus resurrection, care (Sorge) versus eschatological restlessness, and time versus eschaton. All of these describe the liturgical experience of man before God and the possibility of an eternity which, from the point of view of the world and of our experience in the world, can only take on the ever-provisional figure of anticipation. The present article argues for the existence of a theological paradox of eschatology in the writings of the French phenomenologist: even if eschatology is only anticipated, the liturgical man, situated before God (coram Deo), experiences it in an incomplete and apophatic manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale and widespread social and ecclesial upheaval results in the experience of "dislocation," a feeling of homelessness flowing from the loss of certainty and stability. This article considers how dislocation might provide an opening to creativity and hope, especially in the life of the ecclesial community. Synodality can be an instance of such creativity and hope, even though, paradoxically, synodality itself can be a catalyst for dislocation. To make its case for synodality, the article highlights the church's eschatological orientation, its graced pilgrimage of faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christianity laid at the foundation of European civilization values incompatible with violence and war. The Church has emerged in history as an eschatologically oriented community, with Jesus Christ at its centre, who is both the origin and the perfect goal of the Church. However, modern times have seen outbreaks of violence of an unprecedented intensity and extent in the form of revolutions and wars. The present paper places the origin of this modern escalation of violence precisely on the repudiation of Christianity, the secularisation of Christian values and the emergence of a type of secular eschatology and secular political religions that have renounced those Christian values on which Euro-Atlantic civilisation was built. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I propose a model of disability which synthesizes Amos Yong's disability theology with Elizabeth Barnes's "value-neutral model" of disability and then draws Sarah Coakley's account of ante-mortem/post-mortem bodily fluidity in with both. To construct this model, I first outline Yong's thought and then introduce Barnes's work to it as a pivot point around which its eschatological imagery can turn. I then address Coakley's work on bodily fluidity regarding gender and apply it to disability to reveal the model's capacity to hold theological clarity and mystery in tension successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Logos: A Journal, of Religion, Philosophy Comparative Cultural Studies & Art (08687692) is the property of Logos and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Anales del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The spiritual home of Ahmadiyya Muslims and physical home of their leader has moved from India to Pakistan to London in under a century. These relocations signal the communal dislocation and diasporic spread of Ahmadis. Some collective experiences of migration, encompassing memories and myths of the original homeland, persist; others, including the idea that the ancestral homeland is a place of return, require a more complicated historical explication. In Ahmadi eschatology, the eventual conversion of the Earth to Ahmadiyyat is the future. Therefore, no single place can be a homeland for return when the whole globe will become theirs in time. This will constitute the very negation of diaspora as everywhere will then be home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mixed assessment by critics and theorists of the deus ex machina artistic device common in popular cinema requires a more thorough study of its dramatic and narrative functions in science fiction films. It is in the construction of film images of the future that this technique is combined with a fantastic assumption, expressing the narrator’s attitude towards artistic narration and becoming an argument in dialogue with the viewer. The study reveals, based on the analysis of empirical material, the multifunctionality of deus ex machina using the example of the development of the theme of technological singularity in cinema. The analysis of films significant for the development of the science fiction (Sci-Fi) genre and the most popular television series among science fiction fans today demonstrates the evolution of the deus ex machina technique. In addition to the trivial function of arbitrary resolution of peripeteia, it acquires various dramatic functions (accelerating or slowing down the rhythm of action, connecting parts of the plot in a large form), obtains the properties of scaling and fragmentation, synchrony and asynchrony with a fantastic assumption, adding complex narrative functions to the toolkit of expressive means, through which the narrator reveals or, on the contrary, conceals his attitude to artistic reality, involving the viewer into the game of probable meanings. The authors of the article come to the conclusion that the theme of technological singularity has been penetrating cinema since its appearance in the work of L. Lumiere and determines, depending on the narrator’s attitude to the topic, the vector of techno-skepticism or techno-optimism in the eschatological dilemma that characterizes the cosmogony of traditional religions. The article is of interest to researchers and film lovers and contributes to the study of artistic and scientific communication.

This article compares recent disparate hermeneutical proposals in order to draw out essential elements of a Christian hermeneutic of wisdom, which involves the tension of the gift and call of the gospel and recognizes Christ as the essential point of orientation. This approach is applied to 1 Corinthians, (re)reading chs. 1–4 in light of ch. 13 and thereby demonstrating that Paul's view of wisdom is a qualitative, holistic integration of devotions, convictions, and actions. For Paul, the gospel of Christ is not just Christocentric in content and focus, but also Christomorphic in form and effect. On this basis, this article argues that in 1 Corinthians Paul portrays true wisdom as the Christomorphic edification of the church toward the eschatological telic revelation of the wisdom of Jesus Christ, which involves an essential tension between what is known and what is unknown yet will be revealed in Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion and literature have long maintained a parallel, intertwined, and mutually influential relationship. The two novels Chaos Walking 1: The Knife of Never Letting Go and Chaos Walking 2: The Ask and The Answer by Patrick Ness, are set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic world. Through this narrative, the author reflects on pressing societal issues, highlighting that concerns about the future of the world are not only religious but also humanistic. Utilizing an interdisciplinary comparative approach, this paper explores the influence of Christianity on Patrick Ness's novels. By drawing parallels with original myths found in the Book of Genesis and Revelation in the Bible, the study aims to classify and conduct an interdisciplinary evaluation of literary archetypes. The paper will also reference Christian theological thought where necessary to analyze these unique archetypes in greater depth.

This research aims to examine eschatological verses in Surah Al-Waqiah using Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotic theory, focusing on the relationship between the representamen (sign) and the object it represents. Peirce classified signs into three distinct categories: icon, index, and symbol. The study, conducted as library research using descriptive qualitative methods, employs content analysis for data interpretation. Upon analysis, it identifies eight verses featuring icons where the sign closely resembles the object it represents, such as depicting the universe's destruction as akin to the end of the world. It also identifies nine verses containing indices that clarify cause-and-effect relationships on the Day of Judgement, including the elevation or debasement of groups based on their worldly status and the consequences of indulgence and major sins leading to hellfire. Furthermore, 17 verses use symbols with conventional relationships, such as the "right" and "left" groups to represent categories of individuals in the afterlife and fruit-bearing trees representing perpetual pleasure in heaven. Peirce’s semiotics offers a new perspective for understanding the Quran's message concerning eschatological events that will occur on the Day of Judgement.

In the article, the main subject of analysis is the phenomenon of faith. Despite the fact that the phenomenon of faith has been sufficiently studied from the point of view of different approaches, not much attention has traditionally been paid to the mechanisms of the subjective act of accepting faith. Since this aspect of the existence of faith requires closer consideration, it is placed at the center of the analysis in the article. The main goal of this work is to substantiate the position that the act of accepting faith has not only psychological aspects, but can be considered as a basic existential characteristic of human existence. Thus, the very understanding of this process in all its manifestations can be fundamentally expanded and extended to all spheres of human life and society. The work examines the basic principles of understanding faith by some Protestant theologians, who placed subjective faith in the center of attention and paid special attention to the moment of acceptance of faith. In this specific context, the ideas of the kerygmatic theology of the Protestant thinker Rudolf Bultmann are considered. To a large extent, the principles of Bultmann’s approach determined the methodology for considering the phenomenon being analyzed. The article introduces and substantiates the concept of «kerygmatic faith». It is shown that this concept has significant methodological and heuristic novelty. To substantiate the productivity of this concept, modern interpretations of faith are used, in particular, the positions expressed by the French philosopher Alain Badiou during his analysis of the role of the Apostle Paul in the formation of the Christian faith. The work outlines a possible line of further analysis of the phenomenon of kerygmatic faith, which involves both the development of the already undertaken interpretation of the ideas of Rudolf Bultmann in a broader ontic and ontological context, and the possibility of supplementing such a view of the phenomenon of acceptance of faith with principles borrowed from the methodology of hermeneutics and psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan.

The concept of oikonomia, which brings together cosmology, anthropology and jurisprudence is characteristic of iconic culture in the Byzantine tradition. Drawing on the political ideas of Leo Strauss and the interpretation of icons in the theories of the visual by Paul Virilio, Jean-Luc Marion, and Marie-Josée Mondzain, we reconstruct the applicability limits of this concept in visual programs. Oikonomia is a principle of legal regulation that converts legal conflicts into economic ones. It helps to understand the world economy as a global system that has an eschatological dimension. The oikonomia of salvation, with its dogmatic meaning, is realized in practical life and in practical mind as a professionalization of economy in a broad sense. In the structure of oikonomia, the distinction between theoretical and practical reason is ultimately fulfilled, so that the concept should be understood not as a mode of adaptation to the current situation, but as a symbiosis in the sense of Graham Harman’s Immaterialism. Therefore, we can say that oikonomia constitutes an alternative to Protestant ethics, and regularizes the elaboration of iconic forms as teleological, building an architecture of designs and their realizations. This kind of approach to oikonomia encourages us to adopt a new viewpoint on the achievements of Russian religious thought: to see it not as a dogmatic creativity but as a requisite ethical reflection or practical eschatology. The iconic can then be described not as a balance of representation and solemn construction, as it is usually done when specific visual techniques of icon-making are presented, that is as a necessary solemn liturgical entrance of the heavenly into the earthly. Another, equally consistent description is possible, a balance of solemn politics and eschatological sincerity, where politics represents its own self, while sincerity appears as an aspect of solemn appeal and an implementation of higher-level plans in relation to aesthetic and ethical decisions. This will explain the development of the icon in Modern era and show how various practical interpretations of oikonomia can be applied non-discursively, but only within the manifestation of eschatological experience. Понятие «икономия», объединяющее космологию, антропологию и юриспруденцию, специфицирует иконическую культуру в византийской традиции. С опорой на политические идеи Лео Штраусса и интерпретации иконы в теориях визуального Поля Вирильо, Жана-Люка Мариона и Мари-Жозе Мондзен реконструируются границы применения этого понятия в визуальных программах. Икономия – принцип правового регулирования, конвертирующий правовой конфликт в хозяйственный. Он позволяет понимать мировое хозяйство как большой механизм, имеющий эсхатологическую перспективу. Икономия спасения, имея догматический смысл, в практической жизни, практическом разуме реализуется как профессионализация хозяйства в широком смысле. В структуре рассматриваемого понятия вполне реализовано различение теоретического и практического разума, поэтому её нужно понимать не как адаптацию к ситуации, но как практический симбиоз в том смысле, каким это слово наделил Грэм Харман. Поэтому можно сказать, что икономия составляет и альтернативу протестантской этике, и упорядочивает развитие иконических форм как телеологичных, создающих архитектуру замыслов и их исполнений. Такой подход к икономии позволяет иначе представить и достижения русской религиозной мысли: не как догматическое творчество, но как необходимую этическую рефлексию или практическую эсхатологию. Иконическое в таком случае может описываться не как равновесие репрезентации и торжественного конструирования, как обычно это делается, когда специфические визуальные приёмы иконы представляются как необходимое торжественное литургическое вхождение небесного в земное. Становится возможно другое, столь же непротиворечивое описание, уже как равновесия торжественной политики и эсхатологической искренности, где политика сама себя репрезентирует, тогда как искренность и оказывается моментом торжественного обращения, реализации высшего плана по отношению к эстетическим и этическим решениям. Это позволит объяснить и развитие иконы в Новое время, и показать, как различные практические интерпретации икономии могут быть применены не дискурсивно, но только внутри манифестации эсхатологического переживания.

The article examines the social philosophy of technique by N.A. Berdyaev, which he positions as Christian-personalistic-socialistic. Its main provisions are reconstructed, “metaphysical” and “sociological” aspects are identified. It is shown, firstly, that Berdyaev refers to metaphysics of technique as a criticism of the modern idea of man considering himself to be “homo faber” or a “tool-making animal”, which arose as a result of him violating the eternal order of values and idolizing technique. Secondly – that, according to Berdyaev, technique creates an ontologically “new reality”, which, in turn, determines the specifics of the modern “technical and economic” era. Thirdly, that a correct from a Christian standpoint, spiritualized attitude of man towards technique is a necessary and essential element of Berdyaev’s apocalyptic eschatology. Sociology of technique is interpreted by the Russian thinker as social philosophy and philosophy of history. In their light, on the one hand, the cultural and real-historical prerequisites for the emergence of the “technical” era are revealed — Berdyaev considers humanism and capitalism to be such, respectively — on the other hand, ways are proposed to overcome its essential flaws in the light of the personalistic-socialistic ideal of society. At the beginning of the article and at the conclusion the author emphasizes the relevance of Berdyaev’s philosophical ideas in the context of recent historical realities.

The connection between ecological responsibility and differing conceptions of Christian eschatology is widely observed. It is often assumed that the necessary response to Christian environmental inaction is affirmation of a strongly this-worldly vision of new creation (so, influentially, N. T. Wright). However, recent systematic theology has seen retrieval of elements of eschatology that foreground discontinuity and transcendence (e.g. Hans Boersma). Moreover, there are exegetical challenges to continuationist claims (e.g. Markus Bockmuehl and Edward Adams) and doctrinal reactions to 'eschatological naturalism' (Katherine Sonderegger and Michael Allen). Where does this leave the connection between ecological witness and the content of Christian hope? Doubtless, continuationist accounts have some salutary emphases, but on exegetical, doctrinal and moral grounds I seek to disentangle the assumed compact of particular construals of this-worldly continuity and ethical commitment. Finally, drawing on James Cone's meditations upon black spiritual traditions, I explore how discontinuous interpretations of the life to come themselves need not undermine responsible action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a focused analysis of the construction of masculinity as a byproduct of Wulfstan's rhetoric in his Old English homilies. Wulfstan presents Christ and the Antichrist as the singular and physically embodied poles in a system of moral masculinity that is instrumental in shaping his representation of the wider Christian community. Wulfstan depicts the Antichrist as performing a seemingly attractive and powerful but ultimately hollow and fraudulent form of masculinity. This, in turn, means that the hegemonic form of masculinity practised by saints, disciples, and priests is atypically strongly characterised by watchfulness and vigilance as means of safeguarding against both deception and corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Metaverse promises the abolition of physical and temporal boundaries, people achieving what they want freely, and the feeling of immortality. In this paper I analyze the hyper-spatiotemporal nature of the Metaverse from a Christian anthropological perspective. I start by reviewing the Christian understanding of time and the Metaverse space–time construct. Next, I draw a parallel between digital immortality and the eternal life of the age to come. Finally, arguing that the Metaverse's offer of digital immortality is a palliative, discarnate surrogate, I discuss the Christian perspective on how eternity can be authentically anticipated while living in this world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With reference to the film Inside Out, we show how Christian eschatology helps us understand the personal experience of grieving loss, generated by capital's demands for labor hypermobility and its resultant disjunctures in a person's biography. Inside Out cinematically portrays, in seemingly unremarkable moments, an inbreaking of a redemptive eschatological moment. We organize our case around two eschatological themes, those of judgement and death. The first section links a person's affective experience, the structures that generate those experiences, and the last things; we make our case using Merleau-Ponty's account of the intervolved body and Affect Theory's relationship to Foucauldian power. The second section investigates what becomes of loss and restoration when they are refracted eschatologically, using Guardini's idea of biographical death, Critical Theory's conception of the Messianic, and Bonaventure's conception of the convergence of opposites. We ultimately propose that, seen in the light of the last things, grieving over loss and its opposite, the restoration of what was lost, converge into one and the same thing. A third section will circle back to Inside Out and highlight the contours of the restoration of that which was lost in light of the two eschatological themes above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay proposes a new model for understanding religious transhumanism by extending existing frameworks that have been useful for predicting the success of new religious movements (NRMs). This paper focuses on the Mormon Transhumanist Association as a case of religious transhumanism that is incongruent with existing models of NRMs, thereby highlighting the limitations of these models. First, I demonstrate how the Morman Transhumanist Association challenges religious scholars' conventional concepts for understanding NRMs, particularly within anthropology, cosmology, and eschatology. Then, I present a model that effectively accounts for the unique characteristics of religious transhumanist groups, thereby demonstrating and addressing the field's current lack of an explanatory framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can social groups, as social groups, sin? Can they be judged? There is an ambivalence in late 20th-century Catholicism in this regard, between a form of personalism on the one hand, in which only individuals are persons and hence moral subjects, and traditional Thomists along with revisionary liberation theologians on the other. This paper argues that we can accommodate the worries of the first group with the more robust social ontology implied by the second. This social ontology can be found both in the work of contemporary analytic philosophers and, inchoately at least, in traditional Aristotelianism, and it allows us to give a more precise account of the metaphysics of structural sin than the alternatives. The paper concludes by suggesting that there is a way in which social groups, as social groups, might face judgment and then persist eschatologically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent work in eschatology has sought to retrieve the doctrine of the beatific vision, one that has served as one of the predominant views of the eschatological life throughout church history. Yet the doctrine has been criticized for its reported marginalization of the human body. This essay seeks to provide a modest contribution and response to this objection through the retrieval of 17th‐century theologian Petrus van Mastricht. I argue that humanity's telos can be conceived of as complex involving a particular mode of life with God that the visio Dei makes possible, one which requires the resurrection and glorification of the body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The late modern person has a complicated relationship with the body: despite a contemporary “return to the body,” the body is still conceived as a project which the person must advance and revise in order to both express and shape their sense of self‐identity. For all people this project is destined to failure at some point, and it has a range of concerning implications along the way. In thrall to the prevailing cultural ideologies that idolize projection, progress, and proficiency, our approach to the body is more likely to be characterized by manipulation and striving than the divine affirmation that “it is good” (Gen 1). This dynamic underlies the modern epidemic of ill health, eating disorders, disordered eating, “obesity,” and body‐shaming. Contemporary Christians are poorly insulated from the perils of a culture that is simultaneously body‐obsessed and body‐denying. A barely perceptible Gnosticism undergirds much of the popular theology of the body in practice, and the church has done little to address these ills, instead becoming mired in other body issues centered around sexuality and reproduction. The church has even absorbed the aims of the “wellness” industry and diet culture, sprinkling them Christianese and Christian celebrity endorsements. What can a biblical Christian thought and practice offer as a remedy? Ultimately, the human person need not strive to establish his or her identity, instead it is held secure in Christ. Both beauty and health, theologically defined, emerge from the integration of self and body, and the participation of the whole person in the divine life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the creation-theme in the Didache is a research desideratum. This article examines translations and commentaries to determine the Greek words that refer to this theme and how these can be interpreted in terms of creation-theology. This preliminary set of creation-terminological lexemes will be refined by further analysis to gain an overall impression of the Didache's creation-theology. In the creation-ethical outlook, the question about how the Didache envisions creation continuing in the future is addressed, which is discussed in light of contemporary challenges. The Didache has neither a specific ecological interest nor a general devaluation of the present creation. It does, however, have eco-theological potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the latest document by the Francophone ecumenical group the Groupe des Dombes. The document advocates a "reformed catholicity" through the conversion of the churches, where catholicity is not seen as the exclusive property of the Roman Catholic faithful but encompasses the entire Christian church, and in which the word "reformed" also concerns the whole Christian church and not only Protestant churches. This article first explores the contribution of this text to ecumenical dialogue. It then discusses the "bold thesis" at the centre of the document, according to which the Catholic Church and the churches of the Reformation "form one Church, although in imperfect communion." The article then goes on to highlight the eschatological dynamic of the document and the relationship between catholicity and mission. The article concludes with some thoughts about the path toward a truly universal catholicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently published P.Oxy. 5577 bears such striking similarities to the Gospel of Mary that this article argues that it may be from the missing pages in which Mary recalls her vision of Jesus and their private conversation. By examining the shared themes of cosmology and eschatology, incarnation and divine goodness, baptism and salvation, Jesus appearing as and through the νοῦς , and the privileged role of Mary, this article argues that we see a continuous teaching from the beginning of the extant Coptic Gos. Mary, through the Greek fragments including P.Oxy. 5577, to the end of the gospel. Although P.Oxy. 5577 cannot definitively be identified as Gos. Mary, the correlations are enough to take the suggestion of its likelihood seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"For I pray God for the ostriches of Salisbury Plain, the beavers of the Medway and silver fish of Thames" (Jubilate Agno , B153): species extinction in Christopher Smart's unique poem is the focal point of this essay. That the poem's ecstatic scope offers a leveling care for the nonhuman has been acknowledged, but here I argue that it speaks out of abjection: the poet is the supplicant, asking all Earth's creatures to advocate for him before God. Additionally, focusing particularly on the figure of the beaver, I highlight the medieval animal fable as a valid mode of understanding better our animal kin today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article "A Theological Investigation into Transcendence from a Phenomenological Perspective," the author Patrick Ebert addresses the question of the systematic comprehensibility of God's revelation. He argues that the logic of escalation and surpassing between the Old and New Testaments is not convincing and emphasizes that God's revelation always occurs through medial forms of mediation. Ebert examines various theological approaches to revelation and criticizes their deficiencies in dealing with the elusive nature of revelation. The author also discusses various philosophical approaches to the question of alterity and revelation and criticizes their inability to adequately grasp the radical alterity of revelation. He develops his own position, which emphasizes a primacy of asymmetry and radical alterity and develops an eschatology of the "desert." The study provides a counterpoint to conventional theological approaches and emphasizes the complexity and balance of the understanding of revelation. Ebert's annotations are a detailed study on the development of a phenomenological hermeneutics of "withdrawal in manifestation." The study stands out for its sensitivity to critical questions in the field of theology of revelation and could serve as a basis for further considerations. [Extracted from the article]

This article presents the sketch of a narrative ontology as it is explained in detail in 'Post-Systematic Theology'. It starts by describing the character of a narrative ontology as a combination of both, relational and dynamic ontologies (1), in order to elucidate then its basis in phenomenal perceiving truth and value (2). Section 3 introduces in some of the most important distinctions, the distinction of primary, secondary, and transcendental narrativity, the concept of wayformational lines, the distinction between narration and narrative, the distinction between transport and wayfaring, the distinction between logical and dramatic coherence, as well as the distinction between epistemic and ontic contingency. Section 4 explains the concept of God insofar as it is viable in philosophy of religion as the narrative integration of all wayformational lines under a particular one. Section 5 explains the concept of revelation or divine self-presentation in the entanglement of formative stories. Section 6 deals with material reformulations of material themes, namely plurality and unity in God, creation, angels, anthropology, hamartiology, and eschatology. The closing section 7 mentions desiderata of future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ukrainian folklore genres least studied in a mythological context are the epic songs: dumas and spiritual verses. In particular, it is possible to find concepts of the beginning and the end of the world in these works. In many aspects, they are close to the Old Germanic ones, especially concerning the mythological connection between natural cataclysms and the breaking of family ties, as shown by several archaic examples. This article deals with these cosmogonic and eschatological notions in Ukrainian and Scandinavian epics. The author points to a similar outlook in both epic traditions and a similarity in emotional and evaluative identifications of events. These parallels must be owed to Germano-Slavic contacts in the early Middle Ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hilary of Poitiers († 367) is the author of the Tractatus super Psalmos, which originally covered the entire Psalter. Explanatory notes to 58 psalms have survived to the present day, including an extensive commentary on Psalm 118. This article explores the teachings of St. Hilary on eschatology on the basis of the Treatise on Psalm 118. Hilary’s work consists of four parts. The first part presents the meaning of psalm 118, which, according to the author, is a spiritual primer guiding Christians towards an understanding of the heavenly realms. The second part presents the theology of man’s creation in the image and likeness of God, which expresses man’s calling to eternity. The third part of the work answers the question: how can we attain eternal life? According to Hilary, salvation can be achieved by obeying the law and the Lord’s commandments. According to our exegete, true life only begins after temporal death, and this life is eternal. The final part contains the ancient exegete’s teaching on the final judgment and resurrection. Hilary has no doubt that every human being will stand before the tribunal of Christ after death. The righteous will receive the reward of salvation, while sinners will receive the punishment of damnation. The Bishop of Poitiers also mentions the existence of Satan and hell, and explains the issue of the resurrection of the dead and the glory of heaven. Written shortly before the author’s death, the Treatise on the Psalms also appears to be his personal confession of his hope of salvation in Christ and his desire for eternal life. This work serves as an ever-present encouragement to read and interpret Psalm 118, which prompts deeper reflection on human life in the context of “final matters”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enarrationes in Psalmos are an important source for understanding the Augustinian theology of desire, linking it to his systematic theology and his pastoral practice. In this paper I illustrate by overviewing the expositions on Psalms 10 (11 in the Masoretic numbering), 11 (12), 12 (13), 23 (24), and 26 (27). These Psalms teach us to love, trust, and seek God only, a failure to do which marks the Donatist schism. Augustine mingles ideas from pagan philosophy’s quest for eudaimonia or beata vita-the good, happy, and blessed life-with biblical ideas. We want a stable happiness, and we must pursue wisdom; we can find stability in the rock that is Christ, to follow whom is to pursue wisdom rightly. Our desires must be converted to God, the only complete and perfect good and the source of eternal happiness, whom we must single-mindedly pursue with prayer and faith. While we must desire the eschaton and look to no earthly satisfaction, earthly goods may be received as gifts from God. One thing we can learn from studying the Enarrationes is how closely connected are the ideas of right love, the right church, and the right end; all three go together in Augustine’s theology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical science has traditionally deemed itself unqualified to address the topic of immortality, viewing it as beyond its purview. However, in recent times, numerous proponents of the transhumanism movement have posited the potential for fostering a form of immortality within the confines of space-time. The most prevalent proposition involves adopting an algorithmic understanding of the human mind and attempting to substitute the conventional biological substrate with an electronic one. Other endeavors focus on combating the typical causes of aging and death through the advancements of scientific progress. An objective scrutiny of these methodologies reveals them to be implausible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many scholars recognize the echo of Isaiah 52:5 in 1 Timothy 6:1, they limit the meaning of the echo to a warning against unfaithfulness. However, the intertextual significance is deeper than this warning alone. I argue that Paul employs metalepsis to recontextualize the theme of deliverance from Isaiah 52 to give Christian slaves the hope of a future deliverance. Hays and Wagner argue convincingly that Paul recontextualizes Isaiah 52:5 in Romans 2:24 to depict non-Christian Jews as spiritual exiles under the dominion of sin. Through metalepsis, Paul imports the theme of deliverance from Isaiah 52 so that his reproach implied God's promise of Israel's ultimate salvation. I argue that Paul uses metalepsis in a similar way when employing the same verse in 1 Timothy. In 1 Timothy 6:1, Paul uses Isaiah 52:5 to depict enslaved Christians as exiles under the dominion of earthly oppressors. By recontextualizing Isaiah's hope of deliverance from Babylonian exile, Paul's metalepsis serves as a divine promise of Christians' eschatological deliverance at Christ's return. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many contemporary readings of Matthew 5:13-16 unintentionally relegate this passage and its symbolism of salt and light to the realm of Christian cliché, greater meaning can be found when interpreters recognize Isaiah 42:6 (cf. 49:6, 8) as the primary text behind Jesus's teaching on salt and light in Matthew 5:13-16, which functions as a gateway to bring the larger context of Isaiah 40-66 to bear on the Sermon on the Mount via the literary phenomenon metalepsis. Specifically, when Jesus uses the symbol of salt, he intends to connote the idea of covenant; and when Jesus uses the symbol of light, he uses it after the prophet Isaiah. Ultimately, when Jesus declares his disciples to be salt and light, he alludes to Isaiah 42:6 in order to reveal both the identity and mission of his disciples. That is, his disciples are to be the new covenant people who shine brightly and herald the eschatological reconciliation of all mankind to Yahweh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from Santner's essay "Freud's 'Moses' and the Ethics of Nomotropic Desire," the article explores a remarkably intriguing and simultaneously debatable statement made by Sigmund Freud regarding the accusation of the murder of God as a central Christian source of anti-Semitism. This investigation leads into the differentiation between two bodies of the King of the Jews: Jesus Christ and Jesus Barabbas, through which early Christians not only distanced themselves from political messianism ("Barabbas"), but also assumed a political culpability, acknowledging their own responsibility for Jesus' crucifixion. In doing so, they distanced themselves from those who neither acknowledged nor confessed a shared culpability, thereby designating them as the "Jews." This demarcation from political guilt serves as the foundation for a "politics of guilt" in the form of a demarcation from "Judaism." This gave rise to Christian anti-Judaism, which Freud ultimately traced back to the distinction between acknowledgment and non-acknowledgment of guilt in his book Moses and Monotheism. Drawing on the dimension of preserving communal unity through the confession of guilt, this article proposes that the Christian model of collective guilt confession should not be simply understood as a desire to liberate oneself from the superego pressures, as, according to Santner, a "spiriting away of spirits and specters." Instead, it can be comprehended as a novel means of preserving a community through the exclusion of those who do not join in the declaration of guilt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Levinas mainly deals with the notion of eschatology in the preface of Totalité et infini (1961). There it appears in the context of his agreement with an entire tradition of philosophers claiming that the very nature of being is one of violence and war, which becomes manifest in the pervasive waging of political battles and wars. He further contends that a conception of morality based on the “pure subjectivism of the I” is powerless to shield humankind against such violence. The alternative he offers to such an impotent morality is an ethics of alterity. Eschatology is Levinas’s answer to how such an ethics of alterity would be capable of insulating humankind against calculative reason and the pressures of politics and war. To understand how eschatology succeeds in doing so and how Levinas fills in the notion, I argue that it should be understood within the context of his conceptualisation of time. Levinas offers novel analyses of the forms and the work of time. Time, in Levinas, is the very inner structure of an existent’s movement of existing – I refer in this regard to the inherent chronological inconsistency of the human condition. In Levinas’s ethical metaphysics this inherent chronological inconsistency is theorised as the other (autre) within the self, an affective infection that dates back to a past that has never been present – it hails from the diachronic time of the Other – and is opened to the future, “to the newness of the unknown”. While this past is impossible to grasp, it nevertheless concerns me. I cannot remain unaffected in relation to it; it has left a trace. This alterity within the self becomes manifest as an inherent Desire for time, time that can only be given by the other person, which for Levinas is the Other (l’Autrui). This means that the singular time of my being is not yet time, does not yet have time, but the singular I bears an inherent Desire for time within. This Desire for time, then, emanates from the inherent chronological inconsistency which typifies the existent being “out of sync” with itself, a diastasis or a “standing apart from itself”. To be sure, this Desire is not a need to be filled, but as Desire, it is essentially insatiable. This Desire conquers the ecstatic time of need and satisfaction and the inevitable return to the self, the collapse back upon oneself that follows when needs are satiated, and the return of the unbearable heaviness of being that it signals. The early Levinas (De l’évasion, 1935) was looking for an escape from this irremediable Being. Only four decades later in Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l’essence (1974) will Levinas come to fully plot out “a new path out of being,” a temporal path that he started to chart in Le temps et l’ autre (1948), which forges a fundamental link between time and ethics. The time that the future brings is not merely the recurrence of the present instant or its continuation, but the possibility of another instant or a new beginning. How can an existent in the instant recommence otherwise? The coming of the future announces another original instant that cannot be approached but that comes; that cannot be assumed, since it appears as an epiphany. The existent is able to welcome the absolutely strangeness of the epiphany of the future because of the inherent susceptibility to fraternity and sociality, which is made possible by time. This, however, is not time that the existent has like a possession but a capacity to welcome time that springs from an existential chronological inconsistency – a being temporally out of joint. To further specify, this “capacity” is not a power that the individual instant is endowed with. Quite to the contrary, faced with the radical strangeness of the future, with the alterity of the face of the Other, the existent is reduced to a “radical passivity.” Passivity is the radix or root of ethical agency. The capacity that time gives, is the capacity for generosity, the power to be able to give of the riches accumulated. This is not to turn away from one’s egotistical selfish life once and for all, but a being turned to be able to welcome the Other without being obliterated in the face of an absolute Mystery. The instant as an interruption announces the possibility of a new beginning, which is not the effacement of the past, but the pardon that purifies the past and the injustices committed. Pardon consists in a retroactive action that inverts the natural temporal order of things and implies the “reversibility of time”. Now the past instant has not passed but can be lived again, differently. In Levinas we find a non-teleological conception of time. Truth, Levinas contends, requires both an infinite time and a completed time conceived as “messianic time”. Messianic time, more precisely, may be conceived as the “extreme vigilance of the messianic consciousness”, since it is only such vigilant consciousness that can protect us against the revenge of evil – which infinite time cannot do. This notion of “messianic consciousness” is encapsulated in Levinas’s conceptualisation of eschatology, which is the infinity beyond totality or beyond history, without denying history. The eschatological is not realised at the end of time but rather in each instant in which our responsibility vis-à-vis the Other is realised. If this responsibility exempts us from the jurisdiction of history and the future, salvation is not to be found at the end of history but remains at each moment possible. When Levinas speaks of eschatology in Totalité et Infini he does not refer to a doctrine but to a vision: “the eschatological vision” that consummates moral experience. It is not a spiritual relationship; it leads to action. To see (envision) is already to act. This action is evoked in feeling responsible in the face of the future one hopes for others. The future one hopes for others – a better future – is the eschatological vision realised in the eruption of the present as a purified past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]