History and Eschatology: Jesus and the Promise of Natural Th

The question of 'natural theology' interlocks with the related questions of whether we can conceive of God acting in the world at all, as well as why, if God is God, evil persists in the world. Can specific events in history, like those reported in the Gospels, afford the necessary point from which to ask and answer such questions? Widely shared cultural and philosophical presumptions have conditioned our understanding of history in ways that truncate our epistemic horizons and make the idea of historical divine action problematic. But could better historical study itself win from ancient Jewish and Christian cosmology and eschatology a renewed account of knowledge by which to open up and reconsider the fundamental question of the relation of God and world for today?

Professor Wright argues that this can indeed be done, and in this ground-breaking book he develops a distinctive approach to natural theology grounded in an 'epistemology of love'. This approach arises from reflection upon the significance of the ancient concept of the 'new creation' for our understanding the reality of the world and the reality of God in relation to one another.

Provisional contents

1. The Fallen Shrine: Lisbon 1755 and the Triumph of Epicureanism

2. The Questioned Book: Critical Scholarship and the Gospels

3. The Shifting Sand: The Meanings of 'History'

4. The End of the World? Eschatology and Apocalyptic in Historical Perspective

5. The Stone the Builders Rejected: Jesus, the Temple and the Kingdom

6. A New Creation: Resurrection and Epistemology

7. Broken Signposts? New Answers for the Right Questions

8. The Waiting Chalice: Natural Theology and the Missio Dei