In this Book
- Icons of Hope: The "Last Things" in Catholic Imagination
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: University of Notre Dame Press
summary
In Icons of Hope: The "Last Things" in Catholic Imagination, John Thiel, one of the most influential Catholic theologians today, argues that modern theologians have been unduly reticent in their writing about "last things": death, judgment, heaven, and hell. Beholden to a historical-critical standard of interpretation, they often have been reluctant to engage in eschatological reflection that takes the doctrine of the "last things" seriously as real events that Christians are obliged to imagine meaningfully and to describe with some measure of faithful coherence. Modern theology's religious pluralism leaves room for a speculative style of interpretation that issues in icons of hope—theological portraits of resurrected life that can inform and inspire the life of faith. Icons of Hope presents an interpretation of heavenly life, the Last Judgment, and the communion of the saints that is shaped by a view of the activity of the blessed dead consistent with Christian belief in the resurrection of the body, namely, the view that the blessed dead in heaven continue to be eschatologically engaged in the redemptive task of forgiveness.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Illustrations
- pp. ix-x
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xiii
- Chapter 1: For What May We Hope?
- pp. 1-23
- Chapter 4: Imagining the Last Judgment
- pp. 107-152
- About the Author
- p. 224
Additional Information
ISBN
9780268093785
Related ISBN(s)
9780268042394
MARC Record
OCLC
861529247
Pages
256
Launched on MUSE
2013-10-21
Language
English
Open Access
No