Hope In Action

Introduction: “Always Be Ready…”

1. Metz’s Response To Secularization: From A Transcendental-Linear To A Utopic Theology Of History
2. Schillebeeckx’s Response To Secularization: From A Merciful Dispensation To Latent Eschatological Hope
3. Schillebeeckx Contends With A History Marked By Suffering: Contrast Experiences And A Search For Eschatological Hope’s Positive Orientation
4. Schillebeeckx’s Prophetic Eschatology: Contrast Experiences And Creative Fragments
5. Metz Contends With A History Marked By Suffering: Sensitivity To Suffering Under The Pressures Of Evolutionary Time
6. Metz’s Apocalyptic Theology Of History: Holding Open Hope By Binding History

Conclusion: “An Accounting For The Hope…”
Postscript: Subversive Eschatology And “Indirect Ecumenism”
Bibliography

Additional Info
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.