The End of All Things Is at Hand

A Christian Eschatology in Conversation with Science and Islam

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781666722215
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Christliche Theologie

This book proposes a bold vision of the "end" of human life and the cosmos based on the hopeful vision of Christian faith. In a dialogue with the best of Christian tradition, the natural sciences' conjectures of the "end, " as well as Islam's rich teaching on the doctrine of the Last Things, a fresh constructive eschatology is recommended. While based on wide and deep academic learning, the conversational style of the book makes it suitable for various kinds of audiences, from pastors, to students, to scholars, and to interested lay folks.

chapter 1

Introduction

The why and what of the doctrine of the last things?

Why be concerned about the “End”?

Only a very small group of people, I assume, lose sleep at night wondering what the End of all things will be like. Perhaps a few more worry about what the last day of their own lives will be like. But when it comes to life at large, let alone our planet—and the immensely vast universe—that worry is left to us theologians, along with the professional guild of futurologists.

Why, then, write a whole book on the topic of eschatology, the doctrine of the last things? Wouldn’t it be more profitable to devote time and energy to reflecting on how to best redeem our limited time in this world and how to help life flourish here and now?

Indeed, these two perspectives, one regarding the life-to-come and the other regarding today and its responsibilities, are not necessarily alternatives. What if our lifestyle before physical death, our mundane life in the quotidian, is affected and even guided by what we believe and imagine about what, if anything, happens after this life? What if devotion to today’s responsibilities were thwarted or energized by the vision of what will be—or what we hope for—in the “sweet by and by”?

This is what I argue in this essay. I would like you to consider the suggestion that, as important as it is to focus on the task at hand, that alone is not enough. Why? Because there is a surplus to human life, a something more—the hope and anticipation of something beyond this world. In the words of the late twentieth-century Roman Catholic theologian Karl Rahner, the human being is “a being who ex-ists from out of his present ‘now’ towards his future.”1 That kind of anticipation does not have to be utopian in nature, that is, to take away your focus from what is important at this moment. Hope in the future may instead allow you to invest your best in the challenges, struggles, and potentials of today in anticipation of a completion and fulfillment of your deepest longings. That is what a sound and solid Christian eschatological expectation could be at its best.

Of course, this kind of anticipation and hope may be a product of self-deception. The atheist Karl Marx reminded us of the danger of religion—for our purposes here, of hope inspired by Christian religion—turning out to be an opiate. But it doesn’t have to be. Hope can also be reasonable and rational, even though it cannot be argued irrefutably. Hope is risky. It may end up being unstable, like a house built on sand. Nonetheless, I challenge you to consider the idea that hope is a risk worth taking. Complacency toward and oblivion with regard to the future, to what happens to us after the end of this physical life, may well turn out to be tragic as well.

Sure, faith is more than knowledge, more than a scientific knowledge. Faith is a mystery. “But mystery,” so Rahner reminds us, “is not to be identified with a statement which is senseless and unintelligible for us.”2 Although the meaning and depth of the mystery may not be able to be totally exhausted, it can be reflected on, considered, and assessed with regard to its truthfulness and reliability. So here I go with the confidence of the seventeenth-century French philosopher René Pascal, who spoke of faith in God and God’s promises in terms of a “wager.” Advises Pascal: “Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.”3 If God is, there is life after this life. If God is not, then who knows!

Although I am writing about the future as a theologian, from the perspective of Christian tradition, this preoccupation with eschatology is not the commodity of religionists alone. It is a theme that interests a much wider range of people.

Non-religious speculations about the “future”

Although the technical term “eschatology” is typically confined to the fields of religion and theology, speculation into what, if anything, might happen beyond this life is hardly limited to those fields alone. From of old, sages, philosophers, and cultural leaders have been inspired by visions of the after-life. And this desire to know—or at least to imagine—the “distant future” has not evaporated, despite the advent of modernity and modern science.

Just think of the growing concern in our present culture over the impending “end” of our planet or of human life due to pollution, nuclear war, pandemics, or similar threats. Not surprisingly, in contemporary sciences we have lately heard expressions such as “physical eschatology,” which investigates the future of the cosmos and life, whether in the near or distant future.

Indeed, it can be claimed that “[e]very culture has an eschatology; it is part of our inescapable human attempt to make sense of the world”4 and its future—if it has any future. Consider in this respect the Marxist tripartite outline of the world’s history: “A primal state of innocence, followed by a period of social tension, which is, in turn, supplanted by a new era of harmony, the communist society of the future.”5 This is an eschatological vision on steroids. And, counterintuitively, it is not so different from the tripartite religious Christian vision of the medieval mystic-theologian Joachim of Fiore, who intuited the course of world history in terms of three eras, that of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Surprisingly, a similar kind of pattern can be found even in aggressive atheist Friedrich Nietzsche’s scheme of history in three stages, the premoral, moral, and ultramoral ages.

What about politics, domestic and international? Do we find any traces of “eschatology” in them? Many of us still remember vividly the American political philosopher Francis Fukuyama’s widely circulated pamphlet, ominously titled The End of History and the Last Man? At the time of the collapse of Soviet Communism at the end of the 1980s, the author envisioned the final victory of free-market capitalism and its version of democracy over other political ideologies; that was the final stage of evolution, leading to peace and prosperity. While only a few neoconservatives still stick with this naïve and utopian dream, it is a telling example of a political eschatology. It looks like “eschatology” dies hard even in the secular realm.

Going back to the realm of religions, this book will show that it is not only Christians but also adherents of other traditions who embrace a dynamic and robust vision of eschatology. The counterpart to Christianity in this book will be Islam, the youngest Abrahamic faith, known for an unusually vibrant and deep eschatological imagination. While different in content and form, even the great Asiatic faiths, like Hinduism and Buddhism, have their own distinctive visions of the “End.”6

The ups and downs of eschatology in Christian spirituality

Whereas for the church fathers in the beginning of the Christian tradition, and in keeping with the New Testament church, a fervent and dynamic eschatological anticipation was a defining feature,7 by the time of Chr...