An Eschatological Imagination: A Revisionist Christian Eschatology in the Light of David Tracy S Theological Project

In the twentieth century, Christian eschatology, the doctrine about the final reality, became a storm center for Christian systematic theologians because of the rediscovery of the eschatological character of Jesus Christ. In the twenty-first century, Christian theologians continue to wrestle with the claims of Christian eschatology because of a postmodern suspicion of eschatological certainty claims about a future that is, after all, objectively unavailable, yet still of great human concern. Human beings live on hope for the future. An Eschatological Imagination recognizes the problem of the future for Christian eschatology. Building on the major theological writings of David Tracy, it offers a revised way of thinking and living eschatologically in the form of an eschatological imagination as a rhetoric of virtue, an exhortation to live in Christian hope in a postmodern world and into an objectively unavailable and uncertain future. Within such a rhetoric, hope becomes action - not mere sentiment - that seeks to create a Christian eschatological future.

The Author: John M. Shields is Associate Professor of Education and Religious Studies at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Indiana, and Lecturer in Theology at Loyola University Chicago. Shields received a Ph.D. in constructive theology and a Ph.D. in educational administration and supervision from Loyola University Chicago as well as an M.A. in theology from the University of Notre Dame. Prior to his tenure at Calumet College of St. Joseph, Shields served the educational community as teacher and administrator in the Catholic schools of Chicago and Northwest Indiana. He served the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gary, Indiana as its Superintendent of Schools for seven years.