Eschatology - KSTE080
Title: Eschatologie
Guaranteed by: Department of Systematic and Pastoral Theology (26-KSPT)
Faculty: Catholic Theological Faculty
Actual: from 2024
Semester: winter
E-Credits: 3
Examination process: winter s.:
Hours per week, examination: winter s.:2/0, Ex [HT]
Capacity: unlimited / unknown (unknown)
Min. number of students: unlimited
4EU+: no
Virtual mobility / capacity: no
Key competences: critical thinking, data literacy
State of the course: taught
Language: Czech
Teaching methods: full-time
Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan
enabled for web enrollment
priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
Guarantor: prof. PhLic. Vojtěch Novotný, Th.D.
Teacher(s): prof. PhLic. Vojtěch Novotný, Th.D.
Examination dates   WS schedule   Noticeboard   
Annotation -
The Course provides basic knowledge of catholic eschatology in its historical and theoretical perspective. It is based on reflection about the aim of creation in the God᾽s plan of salvation: it is in advance set „telos“ and „eschaton“. It is thinkable only from the revelation of the Triune in Jesus Christ; that is why the heavenly Church as a God᾽s completed kingdom is also the final form of the creation. It must though lay aside everything what sets it into dramatical contraditiction in relation to God (death as an absence of relations) and step by step reach the full community with him (divinization). This process of transformation or taking similarity with Christ in Glory follows steps: justification – pardon – conversion, death as an encounter with the fire of God᾽s judgment in Jesus Christ – permeation of human self- in -relation (soul) by the Spirit of God – the maximal evidence of this divinization through the physical resurrection in Christ᾽s parusia. Dark alternative of this proces presents the maximal evidence of self exclusion from God᾽s proximity: the hell.

The lecturer provides consultations in Italian and French.
Last update: Novotný Vojtěch, prof. PhLic., Th.D. (30.09.2024)
Aim of the course -

Introduction to Catholic eschatology.

Last update: Novotný Vojtěch, prof. PhLic., Th.D. (30.09.2024)
Course completion requirements -

See test requirements.

Last update: Novotný Vojtěch, prof. PhLic., Th.D. (30.09.2024)
Literature -

Reading: by mutual agreement according to the student's linguistic disposition

Last update: Novotný Vojtěch, prof. PhLic., Th.D. (30.09.2024)
Teaching methods -

Lecture, guided reading, individual study.

Last update: Novotný Vojtěch, prof. PhLic., Th.D. (30.09.2024)
Requirements to the exam -

The exam is written. The student must demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the study texts. He/she will prepare an answer to two questions given in the course syllabus. He/she chooses them so that each question comes from a different chapter of the syllabus (example: 1.1, 3.4). Follows the Rules for the Formal Editing of Academic Writing in preparing the answer. The length of each answer: maximum 4 pages excluding the title page. The latest deadline: 12 January 2025.

This will be followed by feedback from the tutor and grading. In case of ambiguity, personal consultation and one additional question from the syllabus.

Last update: Novotný Vojtěch, prof. PhLic., Th.D. (30.09.2024)
Syllabus -

1. Jesus Christ, ho eschatos; the eschatological dimension of the Church, the Church in heaven and on earth
God's plan for the world: Jesus Christ. Trinitarian causes of creation - the warp and woof of human existence. The primary purpose of the incarnation. God's plan of salvation concerns in Jesus Christ all people and all creation in the manner of the Church. The Church is, in a sense, the goal of the universe and the dynamic of history: the germ and beginning of Christ's kingdom journeying toward consummation. The Church wandering, purifying, glorified. The Second Vatican Council.
Reading: by mutual agreement according to the student's linguistic disposition
Questions:
1.1 What is God's purpose with man (the world) and how is it centered in Jesus Christ? What answers has theology given to the question of the primary purpose of the incarnation?
1.2 What is the relationship between the church and the kingdom of God? How can the eschatology of the Second Vatican Council be summarized?

2. The theology of death
Chapter Structure. Definition of the problem. Spiritual-historical presuppositions of the question (prevailing opinion; attempted revision). Development of the question in biblical thought (Old Testament; interpretation of death and life begun by the New Testament). Implications for the Christian ethos of death (yes to all life; the meaning of suffering).
Reading: by mutual agreement according to the student's linguistic disposition
Questions:
2.1 How can the phenomenon of death in contemporary culture be characterized and what Christian ethos of death is opposed to it?
2.2 How can one describe and critique the interpretive schemes that are projected into the Greek and biblical conceptions of death in parts of contemporary theology?
2.3 How can the development of the concept of death in the Old Testament be described? How can the interpretation of death and life begun in the New Testament be developed?
2.4 What are the doctrinal facts about death?

3. Immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the dead
Chapter Structure. Definition of the problem. Biblical perspective (resurrection of the dead; "intermediate state" between death and resurrection; results and implications). Documents of Church doctrine. Developments in theology (the heritage of antiquity; the new concept of the soul; the dialogical character of immortality; man's determination to immortality as a creational intention; summary: defining features of the Christian belief in eternal life).
Reading: by mutual agreement according to the student's linguistic disposition
Questions:
3.1 What is the New Testament view on the subject of the resurrection of the dead?
3.2 How can the issue of the "intermediate state" between death and resurrection be interpreted in intertestamental Judaism and in the New Testament?
3.3 What is the Bull Benedictus Deus and what is its content?
3.4 How can we interpret the new concept of the soul, the dialogical character of immortality, and man's destination to immortality?

4. The resurrection of the dead, the second coming of Christ, the last judgment
Chapter Structure. What is meant by the "resurrection of the dead" (state of research; traditional view; what is meant by "resurrection on the last day"?; on the question of the bodily nature of the resurrection). The Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment (on the biblical view; theological evaluation).
Reading: by mutual agreement according to the student's linguistic disposition
Questions:
4.1 How can the issue of temporality in the resurrection "on the last day" be interpreted?
4.2 How can the issue of bodily resurrection be interpreted?
4.3 How can one interpret the reality

4. The resurrection of the dead, the second coming of Christ, the last judgment
Chapter Structure. What is meant by the "resurrection of the dead" (state of research; traditional view; what is meant by "resurrection on the last day"?; on the question of the bodily nature of the resurrection). The Second Coming of Christ and the Last Judgment (on the biblical view; theological evaluation).
Reading: by mutual agreement according to the student's linguistic disposition
Questions:
4.1 How can the issue of temporality in the resurrection "on the last day" be interpreted?
4.2 How can the issue of bodily resurrection be interpreted?
4.3 How can the reality of heaven before the last day be interpreted?
4.4 How can the issue of the sign of Christ's parousia be interpreted?
4.5 How can the reality of the Last Judgment be interpreted?

5. Hell, Purgatory, Heaven
Chapter Structure. Hell. Purgatory (problems arising from historical investigation of the subject; the continuing basis of the doctrine of purgatory). Heaven.
Reading: by mutual agreement according to the student's linguistic disposition
Questions:
5.1 How can the reality of hell be interpreted?
5.2 How can the issue of personal judgment and purgatory be interpreted (Scripture, nature of purgatorial "fire," connection to communio sanctorum)?
5.3 How can the reality of heaven after the Last Judgment be interpreted?

6 The scope of Christian hope
The connection between the salvation of the individual and the salvation of others. The hope of salvation for children who die unbaptized.
Reading by mutual agreement according to student's language disposition Questions:
6.1 What is the connection between faith and hope? What is the connection between the salvation of the individual and the salvation of others?
6.2 How did St. Augustine and the Middle Ages answer the question of "the hope of salvation for children who die unbaptized"? What answer does the ITC give?

Last update: Novotný Vojtěch, prof. PhLic., Th.D. (30.09.2024)
Entry requirements -

Natural intelligence, humility, diligence.

Last update: Novotný Vojtěch, prof. PhLic., Th.D. (30.09.2024)