Eternity Creates And Redeems Time: A Key To Augustine’s Confessions Within A Theology Of History

Keyword(s):  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Henning Trüper

In this article I will discuss various thoughts of a few recent representatives of the tradition of the philosophy of history—Heinz Dieter Kittsteiner, Ulrich Beck, and finally Karl Rahner—and bring them into a conversation with Dipesh Chakrabarty's work on the problems of human species history and the Anthropocene. The aim of this undertaking is to gain greater clarity on the question of the work that theology continues to do for historical thought. I argue that Rahner's notions about “inclusivism”—according to which the possibility of salvation is vested in the species history of humanity rather than in the history of Christian revelation—and his related notion of an irresolvable tension between “anonymous” and what one might then call “onomastic” histories signal the continuing significance of a theology of the baptismal sacrament for historical thought. Rereading Rahner's thought sheds light on certain quandaries of the Anthropocene discussion, regarding the way in which species history can be related to other kinds of history writing, and the novel opening for theodicy generated by the breakdown of the culture–nature divide.


Augustinus ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-25
Author(s):  
Martin Bellerose ◽  

The article deals with the foundations of Augustine’s Theology of History, as can be read in Book V of The City of God. A distinction among the pagan belief in destiny and Christian faith is made. The text which is analyzed is considered as the source of Augustine’s Theology of History, in Books XV-XVIII of the City of God, and also of his doctrine about Predestination. The article also deals with the relationship within the process of salvation, between divine grace and human deeds.


Author(s):  
David A. deSilva

The books of the Apocrypha contain extensive reflection on the theologies of earlier Jewish writings, particularly in regard to election, the Torah, and the Deuteronomistic theology of history, in the face of several critical situations facing the Jewish people (the advance and advantages of Hellenization, the repression of Judaism under Antiochus IV, ongoing life as a minority culture throughout the Diaspora, and domination and devastation under Rome). They also bear witness to important developments both in personal and national eschatology and in the identification of supernatural forces impacting human existence (e.g., angels and demons). Early Christians, in turn, found these texts to provide important resources for their reflection upon the person and work of Jesus, applying developments within the Wisdom tradition in their delineation of the relationship of the Son to God and within the Jewish martyrological traditions to their professions about the atoning force of Jesus’ death. These texts thus exercised an important influence on the theologies articulated in the New Testament and the development of the doctrines and creeds embraced by the universal church, despite the ongoing discussions within the church concerning their canonical status.


Pro Ecclesia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 432-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin L. Hughes

The article argues that René Girard and Ivan Illich, each in their distinctive ways, draw upon the dimensions of the Christian apocalyptic tradition that are often ignored, and that their retrievals of this tradition, specifically of its theology of Antichrist, open up once again the theology of history, an area of inquiry in Christian theology that we often dismiss or ignore, thus yielding the field and allowing the figure of Antichrist and the apocalyptic tradition to be taken up and deployed as weapons of mimetic destruction in just the ways our popular culture has come to fear. It is incumbent upon Christian theology to take up once again difficult questions in the theology of history, particularly in an apocalyptic key, and Ivan Illich and René Girard, neither of whom claimed to be a theologian, may be our “two witnesses,” our “Enoch and Elijah,” who help us to do just that.


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