Hope in Barth's Eschatology: Interrogations and Transformations Beyond Tragedy (Routledge New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies) - Hardcover

McDowell, John C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754615421 ISBN 13: 9780754615422

Publisher: Routledge, 2000

Synopsis

Hope in Barth's Eschatology presents a critical investigation and survey of Karl Barth's writings, particularly his Church Dogmatics IV.3, in order to locate the character and nature of 'hope' within Barth's eschatology. Arguing that Barth, with his form of hope that refuses to shy away from the dark themes of the 'tragic vision', could be seen to undermine certain tragic sensibilities necessary for a healthy account of hope, John McDowell locates Barth within the context of larger traditions of theological thinking, and influential accounts of Christian hope, examining the work of Steiner, MacKinnon, Pannenberg, Rahner, Moltmanm and others. Addressing the relative neglect that Barth commentators have paid to eschatological themes, McDowell maintains that to miss what Barth is doing in his eschatology, is to seriously misunderstand Barth's broader theological sense. This book offers a significant contribution to the ongoing task of understanding Barth's theology whilst developing a way of reading hope and eschatology that, ultimately, places some critical questions at Barth's door.

About this title

From the Author

The importance and grammar of hope in K. Barth's eschatology
As Jürgen Moltmann's work has indicated, hope makes a difference to life and practice. Tracing the development of this theme through the writings of Karl Barth, this study endeavours to call into question the paucity of critical comment on his eschatology, the theological soil from which his Christian hope grows. Failing to acknowledge and do justice to his distinctively christomorphic hope, then, entails missing something essential in Barth's theological perspective. Barth's theology is precisely an attempt at an eschatological location of thought which generates consequent ethical engagement. Yet certain tensions within Barth's account are identified and questioned through interaction with the use of the genre of the tragic in George Steiner, Donald MacKinnon and Friedrich Nietzsche in particular.

John C. McDowell, Meldrum Lecturer in Systematic Theology, New College, Mound Place, University of Edinburgh, EH1 2LX, Scotland

Synopsis

This text looks at the pessimistic and optimistic route to God after death. The book looks at nihilism, the rejection of religion and moral principles, and offers hope in eschatology, the theology of death and a final destination. It examines the idea that there is a "void" and not a God, that death is a "strange and frightening journey".

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0754615421
• ISBN 13: 9780754615422
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 276