eschatology
Publié le 17/01/2022
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Religious doctrines about the end
of human life and the end of the world. The word
basically means the "study of the last things."
Religiously, the "last things" can be seen as either
gloomy, the "twilight of the gods" or descent into
an underworld like the Greek Hades or the Hebrew
Sheol, or glorious, the RESURRECTION of the body
and the new HEAVEN and earth (see AFTERLIFE IN
WORLD RELIGIONS). Individual eschatology includes beliefs about death, judgment, heaven, HELL, or
REINCARNATION. World eschatology involves the destiny
of the world as a whole: the future coming of
MESSIAHS or saviors, the last judgment, the divine
destruction and perhaps recreation of Earth as a
new paradise.
HISTORY
Idea of world eschatology as we know it probably
did not begin until people started to think in terms
of historical time, not the cyclical time in which
the world just repeated itself year after year and
age after age. This realization broadly coincides
with the invention of writing and the emergence of
world religions in which GOD or ultimate reality is
seen as doing something of immense importance
within historical time: giving the law to MOSES, saving
the world in JESUS, showing supreme enlightenment
in the BUDDHA, delivering the QUR'AN to
MUHAMMAD. If God can act to save the world within
history, can there not also be a supreme consummation
of history in which its meaning is fulfi lled
and revealed, justice is done, and perhaps a new
and better age begun? World eschatology comes
from seeing the course of a world as a line, not a
circle, commencing with creation and ending in a
last judgment or supreme revelation that sums it
all up and makes it meaningful. This would be the
end of history.
WESTERN RELIGIONS
This style of world eschatology may well have
begun with the ancient Iranian prophet ZARATHUSTRA
and his religion ZOROASTRIANISM. He taught that
the world is a battleground between Ahura Mazda,
the Lord of Light, and the principle of EVIL, the Lord
of the Lie, Ahriman. As Ahura Mazda would defeat
Ahriman, the prophet Zarathustra would return,
all those who had died would be raised in a general
resurrection, and God would create for them a
new and perfect earth. Ideas highly reminiscent of
these, perhaps infl uenced by Zoroastrianism, are
found in the three great Western monotheistic religions,
JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, and ISLAM. In their traditional
forms, they emphasize a divine judgment
of the world on the Last Day; Christianity says the
judgment will be by Jesus CHRIST, who will then
come in glory to judge the living and the dead.
HINDUISM AND BUDDHISM
In the Eastern religions of HINDUISM and BUDDHISM,
individual eschatology is seen more in terms of
KARMA, though its popular scenarios may include
personal judgment by the lord of the underworld,
Yama or Yenlo, and possible perdition to the hells
or the realm of GHOSTS, or reward in one of the
heavens, as well as human or animal reincarnation—
all for as long as it takes to expend one's
bad or good karma. World eschatology may be
ultimately within the context of cycles, but may
more immediately include the coming of Kalki, the
fi nal avatar or divine appearance, or in Buddhism
of Maitreya, the future Buddha. In popular lore
Maitreya's coming realm is often seen as a paradisal
age. New religious movements both East and
West frequently have a highly eschatological cast.