Eschatology

Author(s):  
Jodie L. Lyon

Reinhold Niebuhr’s eschatology is the culmination of his anthropology. Because humans are finite, history must have an end; because humans are free, history must have a purpose. The biblical prophets anticipated the climax of history in their visions of the messiah, but also exposed the pride inherent in human hearts. Jesus revealed the meaning of history through the cross: suffering love. Since agape will always be at least partially defeated in history, humans currently wait in an interim for the second coming of Christ and the triumph of sacrificial love. Niebuhr explains that Scripture proclaims the eschaton through the symbols of the Parousia, the Last Judgement, and the Resurrection. These symbols must be viewed as meaningful without being literal. Pride often perverts eschatological understanding, causing humans to ignore the limitations of humanity or despair of their finitude. Niebuhr’s eschatological proclamations are circumspect, but their vagueness allows them to avoid the pride of which Niebuhr so frequently warns.

2009 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 218-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cordelia Warr

In Italy, the years around 1500 were fraught for a number of reasons. There were renewed fears about the second coming of Christ and the end of the world. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire gave rise to a sense of instability and impending doom. In this climate many people became increasingly concerned about their fate in the afterlife and the need to be prepared for death and judgement. Central to this was the doctrine of purgatory. Yet, in the first decades of the sixteenth century, ideas surrounding purgatory were highly contested as heretical ideas from northern Europe began to filter into northern Italy. This paper investigates Catholic beliefs about the alleviation of purgatorial suffering through a case study of one holy woman from the north of Italy, the Dominican tertiary, Stefana Quinzani, who, according to a letter of 4 March 1500 written by Duke Ercole d’Este, endured every Friday ‘the whole of the Passion in her body, stage by stage, from the Flagellation to the Deposition from the Cross’.


2021 ◽  
Vol 83 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 83-101
Author(s):  
Annette Hjort Knudsen

According to Asle Eikrem’s book “God as Sacrificial love”, the concept of the Christian God as a God of love is not coherent with the claim that Jesus was sacrificed on the cross for the redemption of human sins. Eikrem’s conclusion builds on a conceptual framework that describes the crucifixion as a self-sacrifice. His argument makes Jesus co-responsible, thus sanctioning the violent action. This way, evil becomes instrumental which is inconsistent with the notion of God as love. It is the intention of this article to show that (at least) one alternative conceptual framework makes it possible to maintain the view that the crucifixion was necessary for Jesus’ redemptive mission. The crucifixion is thus not inconsistent with, but rather a consequence of the conception of God as love. For Jesus to realize God’s incarnational intention of establishing a living fellowship with humanity is for him to realize a fellowship of experienced damnation followed by a truly redemptive resurrection.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 228
Author(s):  
Amanda Doviak

The carved figural program of the tenth-century Gosforth Cross (Cumbria) has long been considered to depict Norse mythological episodes, leaving the potential Christian iconographic import of its Crucifixion carving underexplored. The scheme is analyzed here using earlier exegetical texts and sculptural precedents to explain the function of the frame surrounding Christ, by demonstrating how icons were viewed and understood in Anglo-Saxon England. The frame, signifying the iconic nature of the Crucifixion image, was intended to elicit the viewer’s compunction, contemplation and, subsequently, prayer, by facilitating a collapse of time and space that assimilates the historical event of the Crucifixion, the viewer’s present and the Parousia. Further, the arrangement of the Gosforth Crucifixion invokes theological concerns associated with the veneration of the cross, which were expressed in contemporary liturgical ceremonies and remained relevant within the tenth-century Anglo-Scandinavian context of the monument. In turn, understanding of the concerns underpinning this image enable potential Christian symbolic significances to be suggested for the remainder of the carvings on the cross-shaft, demonstrating that the iconographic program was selected with the intention of communicating, through multivalent frames of reference, the significance of Christ’s Crucifixion as the catalyst for the Second Coming.


2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob J. Scholtz
Keyword(s):  

In this article, a chiastic structure in Matthew 17:14–20:34 is identified, evaluated and discussed. This structure highlights the movements of Jesus between the Mount of Transfiguration and Jerusalem as he is on his way to the cross to provide forgiveness of sins. However, this chiastic structure may also be considered in its wider, prophetic context. The structure of Matthew 17:14–20:34 fits into the larger thought or movement of Matthew 16:28–25:46. This shows Jesus’ movements from the Mount of Transfiguration to Jerusalem and beyond — not only during his first advent, but also at his second coming.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-70
Author(s):  
Mark Harris

Matthew’s eschatological schema presents difficult narrative puzzles, not least of which is the paradox between a ‘coming Son of Man’ who is assumed to be absent from earth in the present, and a risen Jesus who promises perpetual presence ‘until the end of the age’ (28.20). A suggestion of G.B. Caird will be explored using a narrative-critical approach that focuses especially on Matthew’s interests in divine presence, mountains and the significance of the Jerusalem Temple. It will be argued that the Matthean παρουσία may be read not so much as a ‘second coming’ but as a more continuous statement of presence from the cross and resurrection onwards. This places the ‘Son of Man’ as a narrative symbol of mediation between heaven and earth, in the clouds, on the final mountain-top, ‘until the end of the age’. It is suggested that this can be seen as part of Matthew’s theodicy for the destruction of the Temple in 70 ce. 



Author(s):  
V. Mizuhira ◽  
Y. Futaesaku

Previously we reported that tannic acid is a very effective fixative for proteins including polypeptides. Especially, in the cross section of microtubules, thirteen submits in A-tubule and eleven in B-tubule could be observed very clearly. An elastic fiber could be demonstrated very clearly, as an electron opaque, homogeneous fiber. However, tannic acid did not penetrate into the deep portion of the tissue-block. So we tried Catechin. This shows almost the same chemical natures as that of proteins, as tannic acid. Moreover, we thought that catechin should have two active-reaction sites, one is phenol,and the other is catechole. Catechole site should react with osmium, to make Os- black. Phenol-site should react with peroxidase existing perhydroxide.


Author(s):  
Valerie V. Ernst

During the earliest stage of oocyte development in the limpet, Acmea scutum, Golgi complexes are small, few and randomly dispersed in the cytoplasm. As growth proceeds, the Golgi complexes increase in size and number and migrate to the periphery of the cell. At this time, fibrous structures resembling striated rootlets occur associated with the Golgi complexes. Only one fibrous structure appears to be associated with a Golgi complex.The fibers are periodically cross banded with an average of 4 dense fibrils and 6 lighter fibrils per period (Fig. 1). The cross fibrils have a center to center spacing of about 7 run which appears to be the same as that of the striated rootlets of the gill cilia in this animal.


Author(s):  
Tamotsu Ohno

The energy distribution in an electron; beam from an electron gun provided with a biased Wehnelt cylinder was measured by a retarding potential analyser. All the measurements were carried out with a beam of small angular divergence (<3xl0-4 rad) to eliminate the apparent increase of energy width as pointed out by Ichinokawa.The cross section of the beam from a gun with a tungsten hairpin cathode varies as shown in Fig.1a with the bias voltage Vg. The central part of the beam was analysed. An example of the integral curve as well as the energy spectrum is shown in Fig.2. The integral width of the spectrum ΔEi varies with Vg as shown in Fig.1b The width ΔEi is smaller than the Maxwellian width near the cut-off. As |Vg| is decreased, ΔEi increases beyond the Maxwellian width, reaches a maximum and then decreases. Note that the cross section of the beam enlarges with decreasing |Vg|.


Author(s):  
J.-F. Revol ◽  
Y. Van Daele ◽  
F. Gaill

The only form of cellulose which could unequivocally be ascribed to the animal kingdom is the tunicin that occurs in the tests of the tunicates. Recently, high-resolution solid-state l3C NMR revealed that tunicin belongs to the Iβ form of cellulose as opposed to the Iα form found in Valonia and bacterial celluloses. The high perfection of the tunicin crystallites led us to study its crosssectional shape and to compare it with the shape of those in Valonia ventricosa (V.v.), the goal being to relate the cross-section of cellulose crystallites with the two allomorphs Iα and Iβ.In the present work the source of tunicin was the test of the ascidian Halocvnthia papillosa (H.p.). Diffraction contrast imaging in the bright field mode was applied on ultrathin sections of the V.v. cell wall and H.p. test with cellulose crystallites perpendicular to the plane of the sections. The electron microscope, a Philips 400T, was operated at 120 kV in a low intensity beam condition.


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