Centre for Religion and Public Life Seminar 2024

Please join us for our first Centre for Religion and Public Life seminar of semester 2

Our first CRPL seminar of semester 2 is taking place on Thursday 8 February 2024, at the usual time (11.30-13.00) and in the usual place (Botany House seminar room 1.03). Our speaker is Marcello Newall, 

Marcello Newall: 

Title: "Repairing the World: Tikkun Olam as a new paradigm for Christian Eschatology"

Abstract:
"Christianity during its history has often been exposed to an escapist eschatology that abandons the physical world, and the body, in favour of an otherworldly salvation. This has occurred despite the Early Church’s strong emphasis on the resurrection of the body, belief in God as creator, and its choice to include the Hebrew Scriptures in its canon. I argue that the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, the concept of “repairing the world,” represents a powerful paradigm that can help Christian eschatology to reconnect with its original message, and is closer to Jesus’ preaching of the “Kingdom of God.” In this regard, I discuss the German Protestant theologian, Jürgen Moltmann, and especially his Theology of Hope, as a unique example of a retrieval of these messianic concepts from both biblical and modern Jewish sources. Finally, I underline the potential on a political, economic, social, and ecological level for viewing Christian eschatology through the paradigm of Tikkun Olam, that is, an activist faith that proleptically seeks to repair the world based on hope."