LENT IV

Imagining Christian Hope as ‘Otherness’

We have come a long way in these past weeks.  In today’s reading we come to where it all leads.

‘Realized Eschatology’ is a phrase coined by theologian, C.H. Dodd in the early 20th century.  By it, he implied that the ‘end-time’ (eschaton), or Day of the Lord (Amos), had already arrived, and the ‘new age’ or ‘age to come’ had already begun with the advent of Christ.  This included not only the fulfillment of Jewish eschatological expectations, but also the apocalyptic language of Revelation, and apocalyptic sayings of Jesus in the gospels. These were not to be construed as occurring historically, but rather the shape of those future projections beyond time already appearing immanently in the present.

More recent understandings of ‘realized eschatology’ see the phrase in a somewhat different light.  While recognizing the symbolic imagery of Revelation as visionary, and not literal, they interpret eschatology and apocalyptic proleptically, i.e. seeing these imaginal pre-figurations already ascertained, though not yet consummated.  This is where the Go-Between Spirit mediates between the victory already won, and the far-reaching consequences yet to be revealed, enabling us to live in the tension between the two.

What we are talking about here are things like: the Second Coming of Christ to judge the world; the resurrection of the body, and the life of the world to come. These are imponderables beyond natural explication; they can be regarded as the vast ‘Otherness,’ the Totaliter Aliter, behind every mystery.

In the N.T. “mystery” is regarded as ‘hidden truth spiritually revealed.’ This ‘Otherness,’ while it cannot be described literally, can nevertheless be appropriated imaginally, and that is the work of the Go-Between Spirit speaking through our own imaginations.  This faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen, that the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes about (Hebrews 11:1).  And St Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:7-10 adds: We speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.....’What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’ — these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.                            
PG
_________________________________________________________________

Visit Christ Church Deer Park  Sundays @ 8 & 10 am  | thereslifehere.org