| John C. McDowell, Hope in Barth's Eschatology: Interrogations and Transformations Beyond Tragedy (Ashgate, 2000) |
| As Juergen Moltmann's work has indicated, hope makes a diference to life and practice. Tracing the development of this theme through the writings of Karl Barth, this study endeavours to call into question the paucity of critical comment on his eschatology, the theological soil from which his Christian hope grows. Failing to acknowledge and do justice to his distinctively christomorphic hope, then, entails missing something essntial in Barth's theological perspective. Barth's theology is precisely an attempt at an eschatological location of thought which generates consequent ethical engagement. Yet certain tensions within Barth's account are identified and questioned through interaction with the use of the genre of the tragic in George Steiner, Donald MacKinnon and Friedrich Nietzsche in particular. |
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| This is not just an excellent treatment of Karl Barth's eschatology; it is also a lively engagement with major debates about God, contemporary human life and fundamental ways of orienting ourselves towards the future. Professor David F. Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity, University of Cambridge |
| Cracking his way through the thickets of Barth-criticism and commentary, and negotiating the vast tracts covered by Barth's own writing, McDowell renders a valiant service to Barth studies by detailing Barth's teaching on eschatology. The undertaking is little short of heroic and acquaintance with the English-language scholarship impressive. ... This is an excellent beginning - and it sets up a certain expectation (as all talk of eschatology should). Professor Graham Ward, Expository Times 113 (Oct. 2001), 34 |