Category Archives: Eschatology

Recent Blog Posts at ThinkingPacifism.net

Leave a reply

Before posting the series of reflections on how my theology has evolved over the past fifteen years, I posted these other essays in the past couple of months.

Just prior to the celebration of Peace Sunday in early July, I posted these reflections on Pacifism: “Why Pacifism?”

As with many people in my generation, for me these are days of thinking about the future in more personal terms due to the (wonderful!) presence of grandchildren in my life. Some thoughts on that theme from June 18: “Grandchildren and Hope.”

John Howard Yoder’s peace theology has recently been critiqued from the theological right. I critique the critique in my May 29 blog entry at ThinkingPacifism.net—“Defending Yoder: Part One—Responding to Peter Leithart’s Critique.” In the June 5 entry, I continue the analysis with this post: “Defending Yoder: Part Two—Earl Zimmerman’s Account.”

On May 27, I dusted off an old essay I wrote back in the early 1990s reflecting on some of the insights of Martin Buber in his classic book, I and Thou: “Affirming Life: Learning from Martin Buber.”

My discouragement with recent political developments in the United States triggered this essay: “Are We Living Under Totalitarianism?”, posted May 23. Continue reading →

Brand New Book!

Leave a reply

Compassionate Eschatology: The Future as Friend has just been released by Cascade Books. This collection of essays, edited by Ted Grimsrud and Michael Hardin, shows how beliefs about the “end times” may actually be the building blocks for peaceable living instead of fear and retributive violence.

Prominent writers such as Walter Wink, Barbara Rossing, Richard Bauckham, J. Denny Weaver, and Jürgen Moltmann explore biblical, theological, and cultural themes, offering critiques of “end times” beliefs that underwrite violence and presenting alternative, peace-0riented perspectives.

As the book has not yet officially been published, it is not yet available through online retailers such as Amazon (but it will be soon). A home page has been established by the publisher and the book may be purchased at this site.

The first essay in the book, “Biblical Apocalyptic: What is Being Revealed?” by co-editor Grimsrud, sets the tone for what follows. Grimsrud suggests that standard understandings of biblical apocalyptic by both the future-prophetic doomsdayers and many contemporary academic interpreters actually agree in linking apocalyptic visions with violence and end-times catastrophes. However, a careful look at the way the Bible itself uses the motif of “apocalyptic” (or, “revelation”) shows that biblical apocalyptic is actually thoroughly peace-oriented.

If we start with the book of Revelation, we see that what is “revealed” is the way of Jesus—”victory” through persevering love and the sustenance of counter-cultural peace-oriented communities of resistance to the way of the Beast (that is, the way of Empire). In light of the message of Revelation, we may then read the rest of the Bible as reinforcing this notion of “apocalypse” as a call to the “Lamb’s War” to be fought with the “weapons” of compassion, forgiveness, and mutuality.

What is the book of Revelation really about?

Leave a reply

I am gearing up for a new “assault” on the book of Revelation in a few months. I plan to preach a lengthy series of sermons that I hope can evolve into a book. This time, more than when I have worked with Revelation in the past, I will focus in our present-day context as we read Revelation. I actually do believe Revelation speaks to our world in profoundly urgent and relevant ways—though not at all in the ways writers like Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye think.

So I have gone back to look at some of the earlier writing I did on Revelation. I found this series of four sermons from 1996 particularly interesting. This series came near the end of my two-year stint as co-pastor with my wife Kathleen at Salem Mennonite Church in Freeman, SD. Several people had been encouraging me to do something on Revelation before we left. So I tried to boil down in four sermons what I thought was most important about Revelation.

When I return to Revelation this fall, my take on what the book is really about will probably be a bit different, at least in emphasis, than it was 15 years ago. But in rereading those old sermons, I feel pretty good. Which is why I am posting them here. I show how one might read Revelation as a source of ethical and spiritual encouragement.

I was interested to discover that in the midst of my series, I had to find a way to relate Revelation to baptism, as we baptized three teenagers the Sunday of my third sermon. I don’t know how many baptism sermons draw directly on Revelation, but I am pretty happy with how I linked baptism with the critique of Babylon in Revelation 18.

The Book of Revelation as Peace Theology

Leave a reply

Though the book of Revelation often is presented—by both those who like it and those who don’t—as a book that underwrites violence and judgment from God. There is a vigorous and growing body of scholarship and more popular exposition, though, that presents Revelation as a book that presents a basis for peacemaking and compassion. In a short article, I give a quick summary of how Revelation’s content actually points towards peace.

This article, “Victory over the powers of death and evil,” was first published in 2001. It presents a sketch for a reading strategy that counters the Revelation-underwriting-violence approaches.

To Turn from the Abyss

Leave a reply

Does the story of Jesus speak to our struggle for hopeful living in today’s world? Maybe, but we must think about how. It may not be as obvious as pious Christians make it sound.

This morning, I presented the fourth in what will be a series of 13 sermons on why we pay attention to Jesus.  This one is called “To Turn From the Abyss.”

In this sermon, I focus on Jesus’ beginning proclamation according to Luke’s Gospel (4:16-21). I suggest that hopeful living will stem from embracing that Jesus’ message of jubilee—good news to the poor, release to captives, sight for the blind, and liberation for the oppressed.  We must simply believe that this message is true and begin to live as if it is true.

Theology as if Jesus Matters

2 Replies

I am very happy to have a new book just out. It’s called Theology As If Jesus Matters: An Introduction to Christianity’s Main Convictions (Living Issues Discussion). It’s published by Cascadia Publishing House.The book asks (and tries to answer) the question: What would each of the core Christian beliefs look like if we focused on how it links with Jesus’ call to love God and neighbor? What results is a book that is kind of Bible-centered, postmodern, practical, theoretical, pacifist, and confrontational.If Tom Waits were to describe this theology he might say: “It’s new, it’s improved, it’s old fashioned.”

Here is a link to the book’s web page: Theology as if Jesus Matters.


Paul Boyer. When Time Shall Be No More

1 Reply

Paul Boyer.  When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture. Harvard University Press, 1992.

Even though this book is in some ways now getting a bit dated (for example, one wonders how Boyer’s analysis would be differ now in light of the powerful impact the Christian Right had during the Bush II administration), it remains an extraordinarily helpful resource.

Paul Boyer, history professor at the University of Wisconsin, gives a detailed and reasonably objective portrayal of the background and emergence of what he calls “prophetic belief” (that is, dispensational premillennnialism) in the United States. Boyer is a reliable chronicler and engaging writer. He’s critical of prophecy belief, but does a good job of letting the story come through in a way that even a supporter of prophecy belief would gain understanding.

Boyer does a good job setting the context for prophecy belief in the United States. He pays special attention both to the role of the United States in the future-prophetic schema and to the role of the establishment of the Israeli nation-state as the lynchpin for current assertions of the imminence of the End. In particular, it is interesting to learn of how the understanding of Israel’s “re-establishment” changed after 1948 when it turned out that masses of Jews did not convert to Christianity as had been understood to be a necessary precursor to fulfillment of the prophecies about Israel as a restored nation-state.

The alarms Boyer raised back in the early 1990s are even more worthy of taking seriously today–this approach to Christianity will continue to wreak major havoc. His background study, hence, remains relevant, even essential.

Peace Theology Book Review Index

Nicholas Guyatt. Have a Nice Doomsday

Leave a reply

Nicholas Guyatt. Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans Are Looking Forward to the End of the World. Harper Perennial, 2007.

Though this book has a fanciful title and is written with a light touch that at times combines a personal travelogue with portraits of the main figures of the North American prophecy scene, Guyatt is a serious scholar with a serious agenda. A history professor at Simon Fraser University and contributor to leftish political periodicals, Guyatt took it upon himself to try to understand the amazing phenomenon of prophecy belief among North American Christians–and its impact on our broader political culture.

He traveled throughout North America, talking with many of the major figures (including Tim Lahaye–though despite his best efforts, Guyatt never manages to secure an audience with Hal Lindsey [he does talk with several of Lindsey’s close associates]). He also has read widely in the literature and perceptively gives us the historical background for this phenomenon.

The result is an engaging and informative portrayal of an important American sub-culture. Guyatt does an impressive job of getting people to talk with him–and largely succeeds at presenting a human (and humane) picture instead of the cardboard caricatures too easily settled for in much critical writing on this topic. And, in the end, Guyatt is critical. He does not let his own distaste for the views of the LaHayes and Lindseys color his reporting–but he is not simply a neutral observer either.

I think this is a fine book. It is readable, engaging, informative, enjoyable, and useful for anyone who wants better to understand this phenomena.

 

Peace Theology Book Review Index

Triumph of the Lamb: Conclusion—The Meaning of Revelation for Today

Leave a reply

The book of Revelation continues to gain a great deal of attention–for better and for worse. Back in the 1980s I paid sustained attention to this amazing piece of literature and wrote a short commentary.  Here is the conclusion to the commentary from Triumph of the Lamb (Herald Press, 1987; reprinted by Wipf and Stock).

Triumph of the Lamb: Revelation Twenty-One and Twenty-Two

Leave a reply

The book of Revelation continues to gain a great deal of attention–for better and for worse. Back in the 1980s I paid sustained attention to this amazing piece of literature and wrote a short commentary.  Here is the commentary’s discussion of chapters twenty-one and twenty-two from Triumph of the Lamb (Herald Press, 1987; reprinted by Wipf and Stock).