Hope in Action
Subversive Eschatology in the Theology of Edward Schillebeeckx and Johann Baptist Metz
- Theology
- Publisher: Augsburg Fortress
- Published: 2014
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Publisher's Description
This volume contends against a major lacuna in the story of eschatology in the twentieth century by offering a historical and comparative analysis of Edward Schillebeeckx’s prophetic eschatology and Johann Baptist Metz’s apocalyptic eschatology with the goal of identifying relative advantages and limitations of these divergent eschatological frameworks for rendering a Christian account of hope that prompts action in the public arena. Rodenborn provides a fresh angle on eschatologies of hope, bringing to the fore two Catholic theologians whose influences range from Vatican II to Latin American liberation theology. Hope in Action offers an innovative contribution to the theological account of the emergence of European political theologies and the role of eschatology as a practical and destabilizing theological category.
Endorsements (5)
““Edward Schillebeeckx and Johann Baptist Metz were the leading Catholic figures engaging themes of hope and the future during the huge revival of interest in eschatology in the latter half of the twentieth century. In examining the work of each of them and then bringing them into critical conversation, Steven Rodenborn has done the theological community an immense service, illuminating their work and casting important light upon how Catholic theology turned 'toward the world' in the post-Vatican Council era."”
“'Only the praxis of Christian hope can make an eschatological faith meaningful in a culture oriented toward a future in the making.' Rodenborn not only presents the reinvention of eschatology by Metz and Schillebeeckx after the pre-modern treatises on the 'last things' and beyond modern optimistic belief in secularization and evolutionary progress; he also points at the contribution these eschatologies can make for a contemporary practical resistance against suffering, animated by the Christian hope. Both for systematic theologians of today and historians of yesterday's modern theology, Hope in Action offers an unequaled and inspiring retrieval of the renewal of eschatology after Vatican II.”
“Hope in Action systematically traces the development of Schillebeeckx's and Metz's mature theologies as distinct responses to the surd of human suffering amidst a social and technological frenzy of evolutionary progress. Incisive and engaging, Rodenborn's analysis comes at a time when the victims of history are not only multiplying exponentially but are also perhaps more than ever in danger of being absorbed into an evolutionary consciousness that is theological as well as cultural. As Schillebeeckx and Metz issued disruptive warnings via their respective eschatologies, Rodenborn's critical retrieval summons theologians of the twenty-first century to attend carefully to the cries of suffering victims even as they continue to construct a necessarily evolutionary theology.”
“Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you,' (1 Pet. 3:15). A passion to respond to that biblical charge marked the theological work of Edward Schillebeeckx and Johann Baptist Metz even as their eschatological writings shifted and diverged. In this splendid volume, Steven Rodenborn offers an insightful analysis of how the distinct accounts of these two theologians of hope developed, intersected, and differed. Highlighting the strengths as well as the limitations in the projects of each, Rodenborn underscores their shared conviction that in a world marked by suffering, violence, and apathy, genuine Christian hope is always 'hope in action.'”
“With expert attention given to the historical trajectories of Metz and Schillebeeckx's theological journeys, Rodenborn provides here a penetrating analysis of their distinctive yet complementary engagements with secularization, globalization, and human suffering. Hope in Action provides a compelling vision of a practical eschatology, one that is as urgent now as ever.”
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