Table of Contents
Preface xi
Part 1 Eschatology and Ethics
Introduction 3
What Can I Hope For? What Can I Do? Free Action 3
What Must I Fear? What Should I Do? Necessary Action 4
Praying and Watching 6
Waiting and Hastening 6
1 Apocalyptic Eschatology 9
The Lutheran Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms 9
The Apocalyptic Catechon 13
Armageddon 16
2 Christological Eschatology 19
Calvinist Kingdom-of-God Theology 19
Karl Barth's Christological Eschatology 20
Political Parables of the Kingdom of God 21
Theocratic Democracy 23
3 Separatist Eschatology 25
An Interim Reflection: Did Jesus Teach a Special Ethics? Is There Such a Thing as a Christian Ethics? 25
Who Were the Anabaptists? 27
What Did the Anabaptists Believe? 28
How Did the Anabaptists Live? 29
The Post-Liberal Separation between "Church" and "World": Stanley Hauerwas 30
4 Transformative Eschatology 35
First Orientations 35
Eschatological Christology 37
Transformative Ethics 39
Part 2 An Ethics of Life
5 A Culture of Life 45
Terror of Death 45
The Gospel of Life 53
Love for Life 60
6 Medical Ethics 71
Some Benchmarks for a Judgment 71
The Birth of Life 75
The Strength to Live in Health and Sickness 89
The Strength to Live in Dying and in Death 94
The Resurrection of the Body? 100
Part 3 Earth Ethics
7 In the Space of the Earth, What Is the Earth? 109
The Gaia Theory 109
Biblical Perspectives 111
"Brothers, Remain True to the Earth" 118
8 The Time of the Earth 121
The Doctrine of Creation and the Theory of Evolution 121
Creation in the Beginning 122
The Continuing Creation Process 122
Evolution and Emergence 124
The Struggle for Existence or Cooperation in Existence? 126
The Theory of Evolution and Belief in Progress 127
The New Earth on Which Righteousness Dwells 128
9 Ecology 131
Ecological Sciences 131
The Ecological Crisis 133
Ecological Theology and Spirituality 135
Ecological Ethics 140
Human Rights and the Rights of Nature 143
10 Earth Ethics 147
Benchmarks for Forming a Judgment 147
An Alternative Lifestyle 152
A Culture of Solidarity 157
Part 4 Ethics of Just Peace 165
11 Criteria for Forming a Judgment 165
Righteousness, Justice, and Equality 165
The Deficits of Politics in the Face of Global Problems 165
Are Ethics Always Too Late on the Scene? 166
Is Trust the Substance of Democratic Politics? 166
12 Divine and Human Righteousness and Justice 169
"Tit for Tat" Religion 169
The Link between Acts and Consequences, and Karma 172
The Scales of Justice: Justitia Distribution 174
The Sun of Righteousness: Justitia Justificans 177
Creating Justice in the World of Victims and Perpetrators 178
Righteousness and Right 184
13 Dragon Slaying and Peacemaking in Christianity 189
Power and Voilence 189
The Angel of Peace and the Dragon Slayer 190
Sacrum Imperium-The Sacred Rule 191
What in the Long Run Was the Effect of the Christianization of Politics? 193
Just Power: The Monopoly of Force and the Right of Resistance 194
The Doctrine of "Just War" 196
Under the Conditions of Nuclear Weapons? 197
"Creating Peace without Weapons" 199
Creative Love of Enemies 201
Christian Dual Strategy for a Just Peace 204
14 Control Is Good-Trust Is Better: Liberty and Security in the "Free World" 207
Lenin: Trust Is Good-Control Is Better 207
Trust Creates Freedom 210
Truth Creates Trust 212
Ways from Control to Trust 213
15 The Righteousness of God Human and Civil Rights 217
The Discovery of Human Rights 217
The Integration of Individual and Social Human Rights 219
The Integration of Economic Human Rights and the Ecological Rights of Nature 221
Human Rights: International, Transnational, or Subsidiary? 223
Human Rights and the Righteousness of God 225
Part 5 Joy in God: Aesthetic Counterpoints
16 Sabbath-The Feast of Creation 231
17 The Jubilation of Christ's Resurrection 235
18 "And Peace in the Midst of Strife" 238
Notes 240
Index 259