Reviews

Theology and the Spaces of Apocalyptic by Cyril O'Regan

moreteamorecats's review

4.0

I took a course in Fall '10 on apocalyptic and theology. This little book was set as a second reading for the last week; and nobody read it, mostly I'm guessing because it's got such a scary title. It's really a shame, because O'Regan cogently summarizes much of that course's syllabus. There is a constructive argument in here, and an interesting one, but in its way this is really a short reference work and a darned useful one. For a compression this quick and effective of such a potentially sprawling topic, four stars is no exaggeration. I expect to return here as I put together at least one of my exams, and probably two. (O'Regan catches the connection between apocalyptic and pneumatology a couple of times, which is very astute.)

For the record, our thinkers, with O'Regan's categories:
Pleromatic (i.e. the apocalypse has content, and we can and do know it)-- Moltmann, Bloch, von Balthasar, Bulgakov, Milbank, David Bentley Hart
Kenomatic (i.e. the apocalypse is the end of all content)-- Derrida, Benjamin
Metaxic (elements of both those logics)-- Altizer, Keller, Metz

If you're a theologian of the younger generation, you probably smell a good ripping fight or three brewing just looking at those categories. O'Regan even starts a few of them for you. I was left wanting to reread Benjamin and consider (again) where in heaven's name you even start with von Balthasar.