Nestes últimos dias de aula de 2014 estou trabalhando, com o Segundo Ano de Teologia do CEARP, o tema da apocalíptica judaica na Literatura Pós-Exílica. Clique em Apocalíptica: busca de um tempo sem fronteiras e leia o texto que estamos estudando. O livro de Daniel é um dos textos abordados. Recomendo a bibliografia atualizada no final do artigo.
Pois é. O fascículo 3 de 2014 da Revista Internacional de Teologia Concilium, que recebi em setembro, trabalha também este tema: O retorno do apocalipticismo.
Diz:
Que papel desempenha a teologia no diagnóstico em que nos defrontamos do “retorno da consciência apocalíptica”? Sua tradição será uma fonte para as imagens que se adaptam ao espírito da época ou será que essa tradição judaico-cristã alberga também outros modos de leitura, que possivelmente estejam enterradas? O “fim” de um mundo e de um tempo estará apontando para o começo de um novo mundo e de um novo tempo? Ou será que esse pensamento representa apenas uma fuga da atualidade, que do contrário poderia parecer insuportável? Esse fascículo aborda o que significa “apocalíptica” na tradição bíblica, como essa tradição bíblica continua viva ou é absorvida de uma maneira nova na teologia cristã atual – e quais as consequências que surgem daí. Além disso, pedimos a alguns de nossos autores para analisarem de maneira bem concreta e explícita o tema da apocalíptica a partir de sua própria perspectiva cultural-religiosa…
The Return of Apocalypticism: In general, ‘apocalyptic’ (‘‘apocalyptic imagination’, ‘apocalyptic writing’, and so on) is now taken as referring to ‘eschatology’ (the theological doctrine of the ‘last things’), or to the onset of some ultimate horror or catastrophe, and to a compaction of historical time seemingly inimical to utopian visions or to hopeful signs of a new beginning. As association with the literal sense of the Greek apokaluptikos (=’revelation’; from apokaluptein = ‘uncover’) suggests the prospect of profound changes that might justify optimism or pessimism. An essentially negative aspect of this revived apocalyptic sensibility betrays a certain disorientation amidst the upheavals of the early twenty-first century customarily interpreted as anxiety arising from our contemporary situation or as fear of the future. Disasters are experienced as so overwhelming that images of the ‘last days’ are treated as cultural metaphors for a present age without a future, this present age being one that sees the possibilities of life as predetermined and unaffected by the shaping force of human action. Those apocalyptic images also become a signature of ‘post-modern’ culture, which treats all traditional symbols aesthetically and playfully, without any association with ethical, political or even religious convictions. One might almost be tempted to say that the more widespread this appreciation of an aestheticized apocalypticism becomes, the less attention is paid to those who are actually exposed to disasters that do indeed bear all the signs of ultimate catastrophe. Is nothing said or done about the victims of civil wars, extreme poverty, and climate disasters, precisely because their suffering is very real and not so easily assigned to the culture industry as the symbolic instances of art, culture and scholarship? Is there a similar indifference to the 85 wealthiest people in the world, who have accumulated more riches that the lesser half of the world population, or 3.5 billion people, as Oxfam asserts, because we are totally incapable of grasping this outrageous ratio? What is the role of theology in this revival of apocalyptic awareness? Is theological tradition a source of images that happen to fit the spirit of our age, or does Judaeo-Christian tradition offer other interpretation? Does the ‘end’ of this particular world and this particular age refer us to the beginning of a new world and a new age? Or does this notion merely represent a flight from present conditions that would be unbearable otherwise? This issue of Concilium enquires into the meaning of ‘apocalyptic’ in biblical tradition; how that tradition persists in, or is re-introduced into present-day Christian theology; and the consequences…….
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