Normativity of the Future ─ Reading Biblical and Other Authorative Texts in an Eschatological Perspective

One of the major issues of contemporary theology is the relationship between the past and the present. Many see the task of theology as the re-interpretation of past traditions for today. This focus pays scant attention to the future. In recent years theological inquiry into the future and eschatology is surfacing. In the past ten years we have developed an eschatological hermeneutics for the interpretation of biblical and other authoritative texts. This hermeneutical approach integrates the past, present and future dimensions of the interpretive process paying special attention to the future.

The first part of this book consists of three foundational articles by Reimund Bieringer and Mary Elsbernd about the approach which we have come to call "normativity of the future". In this part we provide the theoretical foundations of this eschatological hermeneutics.

The second part of this book contains contributions by Reimund Bieringer, Mary Elsbernd, Susan M. Garthwaite, Ma. Marilou S. Ibita, Didier Pollefeyt, Rolando Tuazon and Thomas A. Vollmer who practice this approach in the arenas of Biblical Exegesis, Ethics, and Religious Education.