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Supplement at the Origin: Trinity, Eschatology and History
Author(s) -
Leithart Peter J.
Publication year - 2004
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/j.1468-2400.2004.00142.x
Subject(s) - eschatology , glory , comics , philosophy , faith , purgatory , mythology , literature , theology , adam and eve , art , physics , optics
The Christian scriptures, in contrast to many ancient and modern mythologies, present a comic eschatology, in which history moves from a garden to a glorified garden‐city. Christian faith is also unique in confessing faith in a Triune God. This article explores the systematic connections between these two confessions to raise the question, Is the Christian account of history comic because the Christian God is Triune? After establishing the uniqueness of the comic vision of history found in scripture, the article makes use of Jacques Derrida's writings on ‘origin’ and ‘supplement’ to argue that the Triune life itself has a ‘comic’ structure. There is no tragic degeneration from the Father (origin) to the Son (supplement), but perfect equality in power and glory; indeed the Son ‘glorifies’ the Father. So also in history there is no tragic degeneration from origin to supplement, but a comic progression from glory to glory, from First to Last Adam, from garden to city.