Roland Chia: Hope for the World
The preceding ought not to distract from or diminish the significance of Roland Chia’s accomplishment regarding eschatology. He makes a good case for Christian eschatology as an essentially hopeful enterprise. It need not be a dark undertaking. Throughout the book, occasional comparison-contrasts with non-Christian eschatological schemas helpfully underscore this hopeful accent. We join Professor Chia in affirming “a Christian vision of the last things” as “hope for the world.” Gone is the stereotypical long-haired hippie-like figure on the street corner with a large placard predicting “the end of the world” in doom and gloom; in his place stands a sophisticated global citizen with a bright-eyed vision of the hope-filled future made possible by Jesus Christ (Jer 29:11; Titus 2:13). That does not at all imply imminent judgment is not rushing toward a world of relentlessly unrepentant sinners. But biblical eschatological hope looks beyond the curse to the blessing, and this is surely where our vision should be firmly fixed. As such Roland Chia’s Hope for the World is recommended to pastors and teachers or students and scholars for a refreshing view into Christian eschatology.
Reviewed by Tony Richie
Publisher’s page: www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=3305
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