Coming God - Shanghai Sanlian Humanities Classics Library (11)

Author: Molterman
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: In Christian tradition, eschatology has always been associated with concepts such as "the end times," "the end of the world," and "the final judgment." Eschatology is regarded as the study of "the ultimate" or "the end of all things." Therefore, the term "eschatology" is often translated into Chinese as "apocalyptic theology" or "eschatology of the end." However, this translation is overturned by Molterman's God in the Coming. The use of "apocalyptic theology" or "eschatology of the end" in Molterman's book not only appears overly narrow but also misleading. For Molterman, the focus of his eschatology is not "the end times" as defined by the German Protestant theologian P. Althaus, but rather the fresh creation of all things. For Molterman, the foundation of Christian eschatology lies in the resurrection of the crucified Christ. Christ's "resurrection from the dead" is a beginning within an end, and therefore, the central theme of eschatology should be the fresh beginning in the midst of a mortal end, as Bloch (Ernst Bloch) stated, "The end of Christ—the very beginning of him." We can see that Molterman follows the principle of "the beginning is in the end" (Im Ende ist der Anfang) when discussing both personal eschatology, historical eschatology, and cosmic eschatology. For this reason, the title of this book is not "the end of all things" or "the end times," but God in the Coming.