Dictionary:
es·cha·tol·o·gy (ĕs'kə-tŏl'ə-jē)  |
[Greek eskhatos, last + –LOGY.]
eschatological es·chat'o·log'i·cal (ĭ-skăt'l-ŏj'ĭ-kəl, ĕs'kə-tə-lŏj'-) adj.| Literary Dictionary: eschatology |
eschatology
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: eschatology |
For more information on eschatology, visit Britannica.com.
| Encyclopedia of Judaism: Eschatology |
In the Ancient Middle East, where Judaism developed, there were other religions in the Canaanite, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Persian cultures containing eschatological concepts. These other religions primarily associated eschatological occurrences with what they viewed as the order of nature. Jewish eschatology, rooted in the Bible, is directed toward the unique relationship between God and His people. Therefore, while terms from other religious eschatologies may be used in Jewish thought, they have a completely different connotation. In general, eschatology in the biblical period focused on the entire nation, which was to carry forward the Divine promise (Isa. 60:21).
One of the key concepts in Jewish eschatology is the Day of the Lord which becomes the Day of Judgment. This special day has a twofold emphasis. First, it will be the time when God demonstrates His wrath against all those who have angered Him, and His people will have their revenge on their foes. Second, it will be the era when the righteous are vindicated. The prophets gave the concept moral content: punishment to the wicked and justice to the righteous. According to Amos, the Day of the Lord will be one of great doom (Amos 5:18-20), and for the prophet Zephaniah, a great era of destruction for all non-believers, followed by the establishment of the glory of the remnant of Israel (Zeph. 3:8-13). The great destruction that will occur will be succeeded, according to Isaiah, by an era of solemnity and peace which will encompass both humankind and the animal world (Isa. 11:6). Then God alone will be King and all nations will come to serve Him.
The return of the Jewish people after the Babylonian
Many diverse concepts of eschatology arose in the wake of the Book of Daniel (2nd cent. BCE). The Pharisees incorporated elements of eschatological thinking into their teachings but the Sadducees basically rejected the doctrine. Groups which brought both apocalyptic and eschatological categories strongly to the fore included the Dead Sea sect, the Essenes, and early Christian groups. The Dead Sea Scrolls make it clear that members of the sect believed that they were living at the end of the "era of wickedness," which was to be followed by "the era of Divine favor." They were convinced that they were living out "the last days" of this world, which would be followed by the coming of God's restored kingdom. One of the best-known scrolls deals with the final battle between the "Sons of Light" and the "Sons of Darkness," in which God would ultimately triumph and at which time the messianic age would begin.
The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE brought to a close some aspects of eschatological speculation, but others survived and new ones emerged. Eschatology continued to be a leading force in the cauldron of the Jewish faith and the Jewish people. Some ideas survived in the liturgy, others were incorporated into rabbinic literature. The Bar Kochba revolt (132-135 CE), with its initial successes against the Romans, was seen in an eschatological light, as was the persecution of the Jews in its wake.
In his formulation of the Principles of Faith, MAIMONIDES included the belief in the world to come and in the coming of the Messiah, and while other philosophers challenged his enumeration of principles, these two were generally accepted.
In contemporary times, the eschatological categories have been reinterpreted as a call for the creation of a better world.
| Bible Guide: Eschatology |
A word referring to the doctrine of the "last things", based on the Greek eschaton (last thing). In some texts its meaning is restricted to the historical arena (horizontal eschatology) while in other texts its use ranges wider still to embrace a concept of eternal salvation (vertical eschatology). Moreover, the eschatological age is pictured as both present and future, for its essential idea was that of divine coming. Even the individual's participation in the eschaton is understood differently, especially where apocalyptic thinking introduces the idea of a resurrection to renewed life on earth (Is 26:19; Dan 12:2) or for eternity (I Cor chap. 15).
Eschatological hope arose from a fundamental conviction about the nature of the deity. God intended good for the covenant people and could be trusted to fulfill every promise (cf Ps 73). As the list of promises grew, so did the consciousness of disparity between promise and fulfillment. Therefore a residue of hope formed a vision for the future, usually understood as the immediate future. Glorious moments in past history became paradigms for anticipated victory in the future (e.g. the Exodus from Egypt and the day of Midian: Is 9:4, referring to Judg chaps. 7-8). Thus belief in a day of the Lord arose, as did the conviction that God would raise up a deliverer (messiah) who would play a prominent role in inaugurating a kingdom of peace. To be sure, Israel's prophets sometimes questioned such hopes, announcing instead that the day of the Lord would be darkness rather than light (Amos 5:18-20) and calling for military action in place of peace (Joel 3:10). The underlying assumption was that the enemies of God must be destroyed before the deity could take up residence among humankind.
A classical eschatological text occurs both in Isaiah and in Micah (Is 2:2-4; Mic 4:1-4), where a vision of universal peace emerges. In the latter days the mountain of God will be established as a center for pilgrimage by nations from afar, and the heavenly judge will bring peace ("They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks", Is 2:4). The messiah comes to the forefront in several eschatological passages, especially in Isaiah. This wondrous child-prince will remove the yoke of bondage and remove every reminder of war (Is 9:1-7). According to Isaiah 11:1-9, the Spirit of the Lord will rest on the "stump" from Jesse, who will judge wisely and inaugurate an era of tranquillity when the original paradise will be restored. The notion of a surviving REMNANT occurs with considerable frequency in the Bible.
These fundamental hopes were altered over the years. A forerunner of the messiah was expected (Mal 3:1), and certain human actions were believed to have actualized the eschaton. For example, the construction of the temple in the days of Haggai and Zechariah led to the crowning of Zerubbabel as messianic ruler (Zech 4:6). Ezekiel believed that the spirit would revive a dead nation, and he envisioned a life-giving stream flowing from the restored Temple in Jerusalem. Jeremiah also thought the Lord would renew the human heart, replacing a heart of stone, and instituting a new covenant (Jer 31:31-34). Daniel, the Son of man, would descend from the clouds and exercise dominion over the earth. That sovereignty was bestowed on him by the Ancient of Days (Dan 7:9-14), an expression for deity.
By the 1st century A.D. various groups believed they were living in the last days. The Essene community at Qumran and the early Christians expected the end of history at any moment. The former group compiled a text that provided a guide for the final conflict ("Wars of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness"), while the Christians did their best to reconcile the fact that the expected return of Jesus did not in fact take place. Paul and various other believers expected Jesus to return during their lifetime. A confession (or prayer) was even preserved in Aramaic ("Come, Lord Jesus" / Maranatha, Rev 22:20), and a special ethic characterized Christians during the supposed interim between the resurrection of Jesus and his return for the faithful. Opinions differed on whether Christians received eternal life at the moment of death or at a later time when the universal judgment would occur.
Ancient Israelite concepts of the eschaton were largely communal. Individuals participated in the blessings of life because of their solidarity with the group. A few exceptions arose in late apocalyptic, which imagined a resurrection. Christians placed the emphasis on individual salvation, but acknowledged that the good life had communal implications which commended voluntary poverty. Jesus was thought to have believed that the Kingdom of God had already dawned, although he also expected further manifestation of heavenly authority.
The initial act of deliverance from Egypt supplied the basic vocabulary for an anticipated deliverance from captivity to a human power or to sin's effect. Occasionally, a foreign ruler is pictured as assisting in this drama of salvation (for example, the Persian ruler, Cyrus). Within certain circles a vision of universal participation in Zion's benefits offers a partial corrective to the prevailing nationalism within the descriptions of the last things. Other thinkers stressed a terrible day of wrath and a cosmic confrontation (Ezek chaps. 38-39; Zeph chap. 1). Whereas some individuals tried to calculate the date of the end (Dan 12:5-13), Jesus warned his followers that God alone knew that day and hour.
| Philosophy Dictionary: eschatology |
(Greek, eschatos, the last) The formation of ideas about the end of life, or the end of the world, and in Christian theology, the last judgement and resurrection.
| Asian Mythology: Eschatology |
Eschatology is the branch of mythology or religion that is concerned with questions such as death, judgment, and heaven and hell. Resurrection and underworld (see Underworld) myths, for instance, are, therefore eschatological myths.
| Islamic Dictionary: eschatology |
A branch of theology concerned with the final events in the history of the world or of mankind; a belief concerning death, the end of the world, or the ultimate destiny of mankind; belief about the Last Judgment.
| Wikipedia: Eschatology |
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| Eschatology |
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Chronological events
Pre-tribulation pre-tribulation rapture Mid-tribulation The seven seals The seven trumpets The seven bowl judgments Post-tribulation Jesus' second Coming Millennium Kingdom The last judgment Bibical texts The book of revelation The book of Daniel The Olivet discourse The Sheep and the Goats Major figures Good side Jesus The two witnesses The four horsemen Bad side Antichrist The antichrist The false prophet |
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[still to come from somebody who knows about the Islamic eschatology]
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1This tab "common", is about all the studies and events around eschatology in different religions. These links are linking to "inter-religious" articles. |
Eschatology (from the Greek ἔσχατος, Eschatos meaning "last" and -logy meaning "the study of") is a part of theology and philosophy concerned with what is believed to be the final events in the history of the world, or the ultimate destiny of humanity, commonly referred to as the end of the world. While in mysticism the phrase refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and reunion with the Divine, in many traditional religions it is taught as an actual future event prophesied in sacred texts or folklore. More broadly, eschatology may encompass related concepts such as the Messiah or Messianic Age, the end time, and the end of days.
The Latin word aeon, (from the Greek aion) meaning "century" (connotation "age"), may be translated as "end of the age (or historical period[1])" instead of "end of the world". The time distinction also has theological significance; while the end of time in mystical traditions relates to escaping confinement in the "given" reality, some religions believe and fear it to be the literal destruction of the planet (or of all living things) – with the human race surviving in some new form, ending the current "age" of existence.
Most modern eschatology and apocalypticism, both religious and secular, involves the violent disruption or destruction of the world, whereas Christian and Jewish eschatologies view the end times as the consummation or perfection of God's creation of the world.
For example, according to ancient Hebrew belief, life takes a linear (and not cyclical) path; the world began with God and is constantly headed toward God’s final goal for creation.
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Eschatology has also been a belief shared, sometimes theorized on, by philosophers. Saint Augustine stressed the allegorical method of interpretation. He was greatly influenced by Origen.[2] He was followed by Ibn al-Nafis[3] and Hegel with their philosophy of history, and, some (such as the author Albert Camus in 'The Rebel') have argued, Karl Marx. Theodicy has gathered together most Enlightenment thinkers, among whom are Kant and Rousseau.
More recently, many involved in futures studies and transhumanism have noted the accelerating rate of scientific progress and anticipate a technological singularity in the 21st century that would profoundly and unpredictably change the course of human history.[4] Artist/futurist Michael E. Arth, for example, speculates about the emergence of a hive-like distributed being that would be self-conscious, integrated into a future version of the Internet, and also able to exhibit any individualized form, or speak any language. This collective intelligence, UNICE: Universal Network of Intelligent Conscious Entities, would connect everyone on the planet before it spreads outward into space.[5]
For the eschatological beliefs of various religions, see: End Times.
Judaism addresses the End times in the Book of Daniel and in the Talmud, particularly Tractate Avodah Zarah. For Christianity, in addition to the Old Testament Book of Daniel, see New Testament Book of Revelation.
Islamic eschatology is documented in the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, regarding the Signs of the Day of Judgment. The Prophet's sayings on the subject have been traditionally divided into Major and Minor Signs. He spoke about several Minor Signs of the approach of the Day of Judgment, including:
Regarding the Major Signs, a Companion of the Prophet narrated: "Once we were sitting together and talking amongst ourselves when the Prophet appeared. He asked us what it was we were discussing. We said it was the Day of Judgment. He said: "It will not be called until ten signs have appeared: Smoke, Dajjal [the Antichrist], the Animal (that will speak to the people), the rising of the sun in the West, the Second Coming of Jesus, the rising of Gog and Magog, and three sinkings (or cavings in of the earth): one in the East, another in the West and a third in the Arabian Peninsula."
Contemporary Hindu eschatology is linked in the Vaishnavite tradition to the figure of Kalki, or the tenth and last avatar of Vishnu before the age draws to a close, and Shiva simultaneously dissolves and regenerates the universe.
Most Hindus acknowledge as part of their cosmology that we are living in the Kali Yuga literally "age of darkness", the last of four periods (Yuga) that make up the current age. Each period has seen a successive degeneration in the moral order and character of human beings, to the point that in the Kali Yuga where quarrel and hypocrisy are prevalent. Often, the invocation of Kaliyuga denotes a certain helplessness in the face of the horrors and suffering of the human condition and a nostalgia for a golden past or a future salvation.
However, Hindu conceptions of time, like those found in other non-Western traditions, is cyclical in that one age may end but another will always begin. As such, the cycle of birth, growth, decay, death, and renewal at the individual level finds its echo in the cosmic order of all things, yet affected by the vagaries of the comings and goings of divine interventions in the Vaishnavite belief.
Most Hindus believe that Shiva will destroy the world at the end of the kalpa. Some Shaivites hold the view that he is incessantly destroying and creating the world.
In Bahá'í belief, creation does not have a beginning nor end, that instead views the eschatology of other religions as being symbolic. In Bahá'í belief, human time is marked by a series of progressive revelations where successive messengers or prophets come from God.[13] The coming of these messengers is seen as a day of judgement to the adherents of the previous religion, who may chose to accept the new messenger and enter the 'heaven' of belief, or denounce the new messenger and enter the 'hell' of denial. In this view the terms heaven and hell are seen as symbolic terms for the person's spiritual progress and their nearness to or distance from God.[13] In Bahá'í belief, the coming of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, signals the fulfilment of previous eschatological expectations of Islam, Christianity and other major religions.[14]
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Encyclopedia of Judaism. The New Encyclopedia of Judaism. Copyright © 1989, 2002 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Bible Guide. Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible. Copyright © 1986 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Philosophy Dictionary. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Copyright © 1994, 1996, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Asian Mythology. A Dictionary of Asian Mythology. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by David Leeming. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd. Read more |
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| Islamic Dictionary. Copyright © 2002 yourDictionary.com. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Eschatology". Read more |
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