“The powers of the age to come are at work now”
September 7, 2009
In relation to our current/recent discussions on eschatology, a quote from Lesslie Newbigin:
There is a way of bringing the eschatological perspective to bear on our present perplexities which relieves them at no cost to ourselves, which allows us to rest content with them because in the age to come they will disappear. That is a radically false eschatology. The whole meaning of this present age between Christ’s coming and his coming again is that in it the powers of the age to come are at work now to draw all men (sic) into one in Christ.
Quoted in Yves Congar, Diversity and Communion (Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 1984), p. 163.
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Michael I
I really think the Gnosticism which infects American Catholicism (indirect Gnosticism of course) is one of the major problems we see in dealing with political debates. They want to treat the faith as something one “knows,” but the actual work Christ preached about is always rejected. Anyone who can read Scriptures and think they are merely about “just believe and all is alright” has not read them credibly. Now, I know many Catholics will say, “we know, works are important,” but they think of that as in “don’t sin” and maybe “give a dime to the poor man on the street.” Nothing substantial beyond that.