What Is Individual Eschatology

Life After Death?

The state of the individual after death continues to be one of the great human questions. Life after Death? analyzes the interpretation of personal eschatology of five contemporary Christian theologians: Ladislaus Boros, a contemporary of Karl Rahner, Nels Ferré, Emil Brunner, Oscar Cullmann, and John Hick. The opening chapter deals with death rituals and customs as well as major philosophical interpretations of death. The final chapter compares and contrasts the theologians' ideas and includes the author's interpretation of personal eschatology.

Culture and Eschatology

Among the twentieth-century Orthodox theologians Paul Evdokimov (1901-1970) has without doubt achieved a position of preeminence. Born in St. Petersburg and emigrated to Paris in 1923, Evdokimov was educated at the Sorbonne and Aix-en-Provence and taught at the Institut Saint Serge until his death in 1970. He was very active in the ecumenical movement, especially in the World Council of Churches. He was also the official Orthodox observer at the Second Vatican Council. This book, the first full-length English study of Evdokimov's theology, concentrates on culture, eschatology, and iconography, three central pillars of the Evdokimovian theological edifice. According to Evdokimov, everything in human culture must be viewed in light of the End, the already-realized-and-yet-to-come escha- tological fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The symbol and embodiment of this eschatology is the icon which makes present and participates in the transfigured reality of the Kingdom of God.

A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life