succeeds in demonstrating that the
parousia in the broadest sense is not a negligible feature of Paul's theology, that the language used by Paul fits within Jewish apocalyptic, that the creative reworking of this language and the fundamental understanding of God's victory in the future results from the powerful experience of Christ's Resurrection and present power in the community, that in the letters under consideration Paul's eschatology does not show development so much as differing emphases in response to differing situations, and that Paul's discussions of the
parousia functioned above all to provide hope and to challenge the careless to alertness and moral transformation.
Therefore, they still live in the last days, charged with the urgency of fulfilling their mission to the world before the
parousia. The Lord's supper could become a catalyst for the eschatological passions that drive their mission to the world.
The symbol of the Water of Creation is pasted on the beginning of the line, the Baby Jesus sleeping on golden hay (Redemption) is on the center and the
Parousia (Last Judgment) marked by a Cross is on the end of the line.
For them, the thousand years, actually mentioned only in Revelation 20, is simply a metaphor for the entire Christian era from Pentecost to the single
Parousia at the end of time.
We prepare ourselves for the second coming of Christ-the
Parousia.
This shrunken time--which Paul calls ho nyn kairos (the present time/age), the technical term for messianic time--goes on up to the
parousia, the full presence of the messiah.
This teaches us to distinguish between the emphasis of Kairos and
Parousia in our work for ECOLE.
Chapter 3 makes the case for Christ's "absence." The key texts are Philippians 1:23 (where Paul expresses his desire to depart [i.e., die] in order to be with Christ) and 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 (where Paul describes Christ's
parousia from heaven).
Finally, in the fifth chapter, Martin considers the religious leadership of Jane Lead, and he claims "that Jane Lead's religious imagination was heavily indebted to Paul in four distinct ways: (1) in her imagination of herself and those around her as a kind of Pauline community, (2) in her allegiance to the mystical event that initiated her evangelical mission, (3) in her evident flesh-spirit dualism, and (4) particularly in the way she abides in the tension between chronos and kairos in relationship to
Parousia" (156).
However, the author fails to distinguish adequately between the early Pauline letters and the Deutero-Pauline epistles, and fails to indicate the shift in that literature regarding celibacy associated with the eschatological shift from the notion of imminently impending
parousia and the delayed
parousia as it applies to the matter of Pauline emphasis upon celibacy.
The parable of the man going on a journey points more to the tomb and resurrection world than the
parousia. And the admonition to "keep awake" calls us to watch for the continued presence and works of Christ as he leads us into resurrection living.
In the Vulgate, the early Latin Bible, the word used for God's plucking us up into the sky was rapiemur, from which we derive the word "rapture." To understand what would happen next, we must grasp the ancient idea of
parousia.
The church Roberts founded reflected his one-sidedly spiritual approach to mission; in the absence of a plurality of teachers, its theology was informed almost solely by his understanding of God and mission, including his imminent expectation of the
Parousia. The theology he bequeathed lacked an integral understanding of salvation and spirituality.
Entranced by (largely) poststructuralist dream-poetics, Ross often conjures a clamor of beings, echoing them, and yet, Ross is enthralled by the pre-modern image of
parousia (a Second Coming, to be present and beside), which he describes as "the coming of what cannot be known, cannot be anticipated, except the anticipation of the unexpected and unknown" (204).
