KATEŘINA HLAVÁČOVÁ
HUSITSKÁ TEOLOGICKÁ FAKULTA UNIVERZITY KARLOVY
HUSSITE THEOLOGICAL FACULTY OF CHARLES UNIVERSITY
ESCHATOLOGY AS THE CORE OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE: THEOLOGICAL DISCIPLINE AND ITS
“DE-ESCHATOLOGIZATION” IN MODERN WESTERN SOCIETY
Abstract: The twentieth century shows a renewed interest in Christian eschatology, which must
be understood in the context of the rise of liberal theology in the nineteenth century based on
ideas stemming from the European Enlightenment, especially its emphasis on the role of reason
and personal experience. In a somewhat parallel but fundamentally different way, changes in
eschatological thinking are also taking place in the United States, where the slower process of the
“unlearning” of Christian faith and doctrine is largely due to the influence of the religious heritage
of Puritanism and revivalism, the experience of the Civil War and the consequent conflict between
liberal and conservative theologies, enabling the survival of a Christian eschatology characterized
by a ‚radical‘ millennial expectation, while in Europe, following the general disillusionment with
the optimistic vision of a progressive society in the early and first half of the twentieth century, the
Christian eschatology has become more and more popular. In the first half of the twentieth century,
some Protestant theologians returned to a futuristic and transcendent version of eschatology, but in
an already highly intellectualized and de-mythologized form, open to dialogue with modern science
and taking into account the plurality of religions and truths in postmodern society.
Keywords: eschatology; millennialism; Enlightenment; Protestantism; demythologization
THEOLOGICAL REVIEW, Vol. 94, 2023, No. 3 – 4, Number of Article 2, p. 223 – 245.
DOI: 10.14712/12117617.94.3-4.2