There is perhaps no better scholar of eschatology in the United States than Dr. Peter Phan, who has written not one, but three doctoral dissertations on the topic. He is the leading American expert on the eschatology of Karl Rahner, and has published extensively on the Rahnerian theology of the “last things.” This most recent text is the fruit of a twelve-lecture audio course taught by Phan for Now You Know Media. Expanding somewhat from the twenty-minute audio segments, Phan offers a solid introduction to the major themes of contemporary eschatology, directed to a popular audience. This pared-down approach to the essentials is presented without extensive bibliographical references or scholarly apparatuses, making it an ideal resource for an undergraduate or adult religious education course.
Phan's working definition of eschatology is “an extrapolation of Jesus' death and afterlife to the death and afterlife of all human beings.” He calls this the “Christologization of anthropology”—that is, the use of the life, death, resurrection, and afterlife of Christ as a theological resource for understanding the fate of all human beings.
A major strength of Phan's book is his application of eschatological truths to daily life. Eschatology deals with the “present things, matters that are of utmost importance for us here and now, and of course, also there and then” (116). Phan urges believers to tap into the spiritual power of the future eschatological realities of resurrection, judgment, universal reconciliation, and heaven, and not simply consider them as occurring after death or at the end of time.
Another strong point of Phan's approach is how he uses Scripture. Fundamentalistic readings of Scripture—both Protestant and Catholic—can cause confusion, misunderstanding, and sometimes erroneous doctrine. In the opening chapters he clearly demonstrates the futility of fundamentalist interpretations of apocalyptic biblical narrative, which lead to literalistic and misguided eschatologies that frighten rather than encourage believers. These apocalyptic texts, according to Phan, are “not description, prediction, or report” (147).
The biblical methodology that Phan sketches out, by contrast, is a way of reading apocalyptic texts that is historical-critical as well as pastoral. His device is a three-step process. First, he engages exegesis, in order to understand the “world behind the text.” Second, he uses criticism to understand the “world in the text.” And, third, he uses hermeneutics to understand the “world in front of the text” (13). This hermeneutical process unlocks the meaning of the “Word that God delivered to the saints in times past and still speaks to us today” (14).
A third strength of Phan's eschatology primer is his incorporation of the liturgical and sacramental life of the church, which has the “last things” woven into its very fabric. This is best seen in his chapter on the Eucharist and eschatology, which unpacks the “real presence” but also the “real absence” of Jesus in the already/not-yet dynamic of salvation and eschatology. Interestingly, this sacramental approach to eschatology also spills over into the final chapter on “a new heaven and a new earth.” The transformation of the cosmos at the end of time is likened to the glorified transformation of the body of Jesus in the Resurrection and the transubstantiation of the bread and wine in the Eucharist. Indeed, the “new creation” is already at work in the Easter mysteries and the mystery of the altar.
Still, a few shortcomings of Phan's primer bear mentioning. One is the paucity of Marian theology, considering that the dogma of the Assumption contains a constellation of eschatological doctrines. Of course, in a short book, many things will be left out. But perhaps the treatment of other religious traditions (which, to an untrained theological reader, might inadvertently appear to be religious relativism) could have been abbreviated to make room for Mary's mysterious connection to believers “now and at the hour of our death.” Lastly, the theology of purgatory needs a balancing between the purgation experienced in this life by the cost of discipleship and the healing and transformation of believers after death and before complete glorification.
In the end, though, a positive evaluation of Phan's book overall is certainly in order. Phan's eschatology instills Christian hope that is based “on what God has done for Jesus of Nazareth … and on what … we hope … God will do for all human beings” (167).
