Coming God

Author: (German) Moltmann, Jürgen, translated by Zeng Nianyue
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-09-01
Features: In Christian tradition, eschatology has always been associated with concepts such as "the endtimes," "the end of the world," and "final judgment." Eschatology is regarded as the study of "final things" or "the end of all things." As a result, the term "eschatology" is often translated into Chinese as "eschatology" or "theology of the endtimes." However, this translation is overturned by Moltmann's The God Who Comes. The use of "eschatology" or "theology of the endtimes" in Moltmann's book not only appears overly narrow but also misleading. For Moltmann, the focus of his eschatology is not the "endtimes" as understood by the German Protestant theologian P. Althaus, but rather the new creation of all things. For Moltmann, the foundation of Christian eschatology lies in the resurrection of the crucified Christ. Christ's "resurrection from the dead" is an ending that marks the beginning, and therefore, the central theme of eschatology should be the new beginning in the midst of death. As Bloch (Ernst Bloch) said, "The end of Christ—after all, this is his true beginning." We can see that Moltmann follows the principle "The beginning is in the end" (Im Ende ist der Anfang) when discussing personal eschatology, historical eschatology, and cosmic eschatology. For this reason, the title of this book is not "the end of all things" or "the endtimes" but "The Coming of God."