Tuesday, May 16, 2006

History's happy end

‘Eschatology is not a doctrine about history’s happy end…. No one can assure us that the worst will not happen. According to all the laws of experience: it will. We can only trust that even the end of the world hides a new beginning if we trust the God who calls into being the things that are not, and out of death creates new life.’

- Jürgen Moltmann, The Coming of God , 234.


Eight points for naming the artist. Twelve if you can say where and why he signed this work.

11 comments:

Drew said...

Hey Byron,

Followed the link back from Ben Myers' blog.

Have you ever looked at neo-classical economic views on 'the end of history'? I wonder what their theological implications are...

Rory Shiner said...

Hi Byron. Nice to find you blog. I'll be a regular visitor.
Rory

byron smith said...

Hi drew,
got any good suggestions re neo-classical economics and eschatology? I must admit my economics is sketchy at best.

Good to hear from you rory, and good to have also found your blog! Hope the sun rising over the water isn't playing havoc with your body clock.

Drew said...

erm... the best one I know of is Fukuyama's End of History and the Last Man... can't say I'm an economist either though.

byron smith said...

Moltmann certainly has quite a bit to say about the optimistic 'end of history' as free market capitalism declarations found in Fukuyama, etc. He's not a fan. Such a vision of 'the future is now' remove any space for genuine future by colonising the future with an endless re-run of the present. Great for those in power now... Sort of like Howard and Costello... an endless elongation of the present....

...Not that Costello is or will be anything radically different (or Beasley for that matter).

michael jensen said...

Fukuyama's end of history was a false dawn... it was beastly in the Revelation sense...

Great to see you hear Byronius!

Gotta say, for better or for worse, Moltmann hardly gets a mention around here (Oxford). Von Balthasar, however, is the flavour of the month, and deservedly so. I think he could join your list of heroes... And what about Andrew Katay?)

byron smith said...

Is von B Katay's hero? :-)

Or is Katay my hero? If the latter, then you'd have to go there too!

I've been hearing more about von B in recent months. I suspect a date may be in order at some stage.

Anonymous said...

'Tis Michelangelo's Pieta.

According to Giorgio Vasari, upon its being misatributed to Cristoforo Solari, Michelangelo carved the words MICHAELA[N]GELUS BONAROTUS FLORENTIN[US] FACIEBA[T] on the sash running along Mary's breast.

Anthony Douglas said...

Hey, this isn't fair. You're getting to Wikipedia before me Michael!

Trying to extract some points out of being late to dinner, he signed it in the Chapel of Santa Petronilla, where it had been installed.

byron smith said...

Well done Michael, twenty points! I'll give Anthony another six for answering 'where' (though the location I had in mind was 'on the sash').

Anthony Douglas said...

I know, I was just working the ambiguity...