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P annenberg, Particularity and Eschatology: Shifting the Debate
Author(s) -
Tonstad Linn Marie
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of systematic theology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.149
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 1468-2400
pISSN - 1463-1652
DOI - 10.1111/ijst.12101
Subject(s) - sociality , representation (politics) , relation (database) , theology , eschatology , epistemology , philosophy , transformation (genetics) , sociology , computer science , law , political science , politics , biology , genetics , gene , ecology , database
Abstract W olfhart P annenberg's account of the eschatological transition in his S ystematic T heology describes how human beings are transformed by passing through a purifying fire that destroys whatever in them is incompatible with the life of G od. I argue that this representation of human transformation renders individual existence too discontinuous between life as it now is and the life to come, makes redeemed interhuman sociality unimportant, and transforms access to salvation for non‐ C hristians into a matter of works. As a result, P annenberg cannot preserve the kind of particularity he needs for his own theological aims: ensuring the significance of history, affirming finitude and developing a non‐oppositional understanding of the relation between the finite and the infinite.