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Document Details : Title: Gods rijk in aanleg Subtitle: De eschatologie in het apostolaat Author(s): LINGIER, Anton Journal: Tijdschrift voor Theologie Volume: 60 Issue: 4 Date: 2020 Pages: 360-374 DOI: 10.2143/TVT.60.4.3288893 Abstract : Reading about ‘apostolate’ today, one quickly observes how dated the term is. In theological literature from the first half of the twentieth century, the term is commonplace. In the post-conciliar time, the frequency of the term gradually decreases, until it almost disappears from the 1980s onwards. If one writes ‘apostolate’ today, this is done almost exclusively to refer to noncontemporary meanings – for instance, to describe the Actio Catholica as a historical phenomenon, or as a synonym for the apostleship of the original apostles. Because of the pre-conciliar abundance and the post-conciliar lack, ‘apostolate’ is often associated with a pillarized form of Catholicism supported by neo-scholastic theology. If one wants to revalidate apostolate today, these barren connotations must be surpassed in favour of a theology that is inherent to the apostolate. In this article, the author intends to theologically revitalize the understanding of apostolate by illuminating the eschatology that is inherent to it. To this purpose the eschatological hermeneutics of the Normativity of the Future approach is examined. After a general introduction of the approach (a) and how it relates to other eschatological-hermeneutical approaches (b), attention is paid to the relation of hope and action. The author observes that eschatological-hermeneutical approaches emphasize the culmination of hope into action (c). However, they largely – albeit not entirely – neglect the opposite direction, that experiences and actions can also inspire hope. This opposite direction is discussed by reference to the work of Erik Borgman (d), by means of whom the relation between hope and action is balanced. At stake is not only how to act, but also how to perceive. Finally (e), the author draws three concrete consequences of this model for the apostolate, by imagining different levels of historical friction on the hope-action cycle which would otherwise end up in a deterministic perpetuum mobile of hope and action. |
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