Christian eschatology is about hope and affects our Christian living today. God has promised that we are becoming sharers of his glory, partners together in that most holy communion of God's inner life. This book demonstrates that to ask questions and find answers about 'the last things' is not to discover mere knowledge of future events, but is to lead into the whole of theology, to the very heart of the matter, where God is.
The author begins by introducing the foundational biblical themes in eschatology. He then traces the development of eschatological thought from the second-century AD to the present. In this way, the author shows how the pressures of historical circumstances and philosophical assumptions shape eschatology, even though it may be rooted in Scripture. Special attention is paid to developments fostered by formative Christian thinkers such as Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, Owen, Edwards, Barth and Moltmann, and contemporary movements. By setting eschatological thinking against this wider theological framework the deeper interconnecing structures of Christian thought are exposed and important questions raised about our expectations for the future.