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American Heritage Dictionary:
es·cha·tol·o·gy |
[Greek eskhatos, last + -LOGY.]
eschatological es·chat'o·log'i·cal (ĭ-skăt'l-ŏj'ĭ-kəl, ĕs'kə-tə-lŏj'-) adj.|
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
eschatology |
For more information on eschatology, visit Britannica.com.
Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms:
eschatology |
eschatology
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 Exile was a turning point, when it was assumed that the rebuilding of the Temple would be the culmination of the people's hopes for restoration (Hag. 2:6-9, 21-23; Zech. 3:8, 4:6-14, 6:9-15, 8:2-13). When this did not occur, an apocalyptic strain emerged in eschatological thinking (see Apocalypse). The new type of literature, foreshadowed already in the prophecies of Ezekiel and Zechariah, was meant to reveal the future, speculating about the nature of the end of the world. The apocalyptic messages had supposedly been hidden away centuries earlier and only now were being revealed because of the problems of the era. The latter part of the book of Daniel contains apocalyptic visions unique to the Bible, with greater emphasis on transcendence and the employment for the first time in Jewish thought of the concept of history divided into various eras. The Jewish version of this idea involved four periods of history within the natural order, embracing the Babylonian, Median, Persian, and Greek monarchies. This was to be followed by God's reign on earth, with the elevation of His Chosen People, Israel. According to Daniel 3:33 this would be an "everlasting kingdom." Daniel also treats the term "one like the son of man" in symbolic fashion (ch. 7). In time, this "son of man" was transformed into the concept of the Messiah. The idea of the Resurrection of the dead now became prominent.
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 Dictionary and Concordance:
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.
Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy:
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.
Oxford Dictionary of 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.
Random House Word Menu:
categories related to 'eschatology' |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Eschatology |
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Bibical texts
Book of Revelation |
Eschatology 
i/ˌɛskəˈtɒlədʒi/ (from the Greek ἔσχατος/ἐσχάτη/ἔσχατον, eschatos/eschatē/eschaton meaning "last" and -logy meaning "the study of", first used in English around 1550)[1] is a part of theology, philosophy, and futurology concerned with what are believed to be the final events of history, the ultimate destiny of humanity — commonly referred to as the end of the world or the "World to Come."
The Oxford English Dictionary defines eschatology as "The department of theological science concerned with ‘the four last things: death, judgement, heaven, and hell’."[2]
In the context of mysticism, the phrase refers metaphorically to the end of ordinary reality and reunion with the Divine. In many religions it is taught as an existing 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.
History is often seen as being divided into "ages" (Gk. aeons), an age being a period where certain realities are present. An age may come to an end and be replaced by a new age where different realities are present. This transition from one age to another is often the subject of eschatological discussion. So, instead of "the end of the world" we may speak of "the end of the age" or "the end of an era", and be referring to the end of "life as we know it" and the beginning of a new reality. Indeed, much apocalyptic fiction does not deal with the "end of time" but rather with the end of a certain period of time, the end of life as it is now, and the beginning of a new period of time. It is usually a crisis that brings an end to current reality and ushers in a new way of living / thinking / being. This crisis may take the form of the intervention of a deity in history, a war, a change in the environment or the reaching of a new level of consciousness. If a better world results, we say it is "utopian". If a worse, it is "dystopian." Eschatologies vary as to their degree of optimism or pessimism about the future (indeed, the same future may be utopian for some and dystopic for others - "heaven and hell" for example).
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 study shared and theorized on by philosophers. Saint Augustine stressed the allegorical method of interpretation. He was greatly influenced by Origen.[3] He was followed by Ibn al-Nafis[4] and Hegel with their philosophy of history, and, some (such as the author Albert Camus in 'The Rebel') have argued, Karl Marx.
More recently, many involved in futures studies and transhumanism have remarked upon 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, and result in Homo sapiens no longer being the dominant life form on earth.
The Sun at the centre of the Solar System will turn into a red giant in about 5 billion years (see the section on the Sun's Life cycle). As a red giant, the Sun will have a maximum radius beyond the Earth's current orbit. A second strand of rationalist based eschatology is founded on this scientifically well grounded observation. The Sun's expansion will obviously not lead to the end of the Universe. Its effects will be limited to our Solar System. It will inevitably lead to the disappearance of our planet. Life on Earth will become impossible due to a rise in temperature long before the planet is actually swallowed up by the Sun.
In Bahá'í belief, creation has neither a beginning nor an end. Instead the eschatology of other religions is viewed as symbolic. In Bahá'í belief, human time is marked by a series of progressive revelations in which successive messengers or prophets come from God.[5] The coming of each of these messengers is seen as the day of judgement to the adherents of the previous religion, who may choose 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.[5] 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.[6]
Some forms of Buddhism hold belief in cycles in which life span of human beings changes according to human nature. In Cakkavati sutta the Buddha explained the relationship between life span of human being and behaviour. As per this sutta, in the past unskillful behavior was unknown among the human race. As a result, people lived for an immensely long time — 80,000 years — endowed with great beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength. Over the course of time, though, they began behaving in various unskillful ways. This caused the human life span gradually to shorten, to the point where it now stands at 100 years, with human beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength decreasing proportionately. In the future, as morality continues to degenerate, human life will continue to shorten to the point where the normal life span is 10 years, with people reaching sexual maturity at five[citation needed]
Ultimately, conditions will deteriorate to the point of a "sword-interval," in which swords appear in the hands of all human beings, and they hunt one another like game. A few people, however, will take shelter in the wilderness to escape the carnage, and when the slaughter is over, they will come out of hiding and resolve to take up a life of skillful and virtuous action again. With the recovery of virtue, the human life span will gradually increase again until it reaches 80,000 years, with people attaining sexual maturity at 500.
According to Tibetan Buddhist literature, the age of first Buddha was 1,000,000 years and height was 100 cubits while 28th Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama (563BC–483BC) lived 80 years and his height was 20 cubits.
Christian eschatology is concerned with death, an intermediate state, Heaven, hell, the return of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead, a rapture, a great tribulation, the Millennium, end of the world, the last judgment, a new heaven and a new earth (the World to Come), and the ultimate consummation of all of God's purposes. Eschatological passages are found in many places, esp. Isaiah, Daniel, Matthew 24, The Sheep and the Goats, and the Book of Revelation, but Revelation often occupies a central place in Christian eschatology.
The second coming of Christ is the central event in Christian eschatology. Most Christians believe that death and suffering will continue to exist until Christ's return. There are, however, various views concerning the order and significance of other eschatological events.
The book of Revelation is at the core of Christian eschatology. The study of Revelation is usually divided into four approaches. In the Futurist approach, Revelation is chiefly seen as referring to events which as yet have not come to pass, but which will come to pass at the end of the age, and the end of the world. This is the approach which most applies to eschatological studies. In the Preterist approach, Revelation chiefly refers to the events of the first century, such as the struggle of Christianity to survive the persecutions of the Roman Empire, the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and the desecration of the temple in the same year. In the Historicist approach, Revelation provides us with a broad view of history, and passages in Revelation are identified with major historical people and events. In the Idealist (or Spiritualist or Symbolic) approach, the events of Revelation are neither past nor future, but are purely symbolic, dealing with the ongoing struggle and ultimate triumph of good over evil.
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 believe that we are living in the Kali Yuga, 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 quarrel and hypocrisy are prevalent. Often, the invocation of Kali Yuga 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, are 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.
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 creature (that will wound the people), the rising of the sun in the West, the Second Coming of Jesus, the emergence 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.'" (note: the previous events were not listed in the chronological order of appearance)
Judaism addresses the end times in the Book of Daniel and numerous other prophetic passages in the Hebrew scriptures, and also in the Talmud, particularly Tractate Avodah Zarah.
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