ESCHATOLOGY. - From Greek ἔσχατος (last) and λόγος (discourse), it is the doctrine concerning the final end of humanity. It is generally distinguished into individual and collective eschatology.
I. IN NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS.
INDIVIDUAL ESCHATOLOGY. - Among primitives, life after death is more or less imagined as the continuation of earthly life; which explains why the dead were buried with tools, clothing, animals, slaves, and women they had in life. Moreover, the otherworldly realm, separated from the living and situated to the west where the sun dies, roughly reproduces the environment where the ethnic group lives and is placed in islands, mountains, underground places, and stars, according to whether the group is seafaring, pastoral, cremating, inhuming, etc. The idea of gathering the dead in an underground place is found both among the peoples of the ancient East and among the classical peoples.
According to the Egyptians, after death, the *ba* or vital spirit departs from the corpse, but often returns to visit it; hence the necessity of embalming the body and performing funeral rites. The deceased, having reached the realm of the dead located to the west, presents himself before Osiris and the forty-two judges, reciting the negative confession of sins. If justified, he enters the kingdom of Osiris; otherwise, his soul and personality are devoured by a monstrous creature.
In Assyria and Babylon, the deceased enters the *arallû*, a dark and dusty underground place located to the west, where a spring of life flows. Here, the fate is the same for all; but worse is the condition of those who are forgotten by the living.
For the Vedic Indian, after death, the soul continues the identical life in the world of the fathers, ruled by Yama, the first mortal. In the Brahmanic age, the theory of metempsychosis appears, by which the soul is reincarnated until it is annihilated in the universal soul. In present-day Hinduism, there is a belief in a place of torments, not eternal but temporary, divided into seven compartments according to the gravity of the fault, ruled by Yama, elevated to judge of the dead. Beside this place are the paradises of Indra, Vishnu, Shiva, and Brahma, reserved particularly for the brahmins; the soul reaches them after being purified of every fault through reincarnation. But even these paradises are not eternal, for the soul, after a certain time, returns to reincarnate until it re-enters the universal soul, which for the Hindus constitutes the ultimate end.
In Buddhism, the state of individuals depends on the transmission from existence to existence, according to the actions performed in the previous life. Only after having attained consciousness of the pain and evil of life can one achieve the supreme state, namely the extinction of pain in nirvana.
For the Mazdeans, the soul, immediately after death, finds itself facing demonic snares, from which it is freed by the good guide Sraosha, who leads it to the Chinvat Bridge, between heaven and earth. Here awaits the judgment of Mithra. If the soul is guilty, it falls into the abyss; if justified, it enters paradise, announced by a most beautiful maiden.
In Homer, the soul freed from the body descends into Hades, located within the earth according to the *Iliad*, or in the far west according to the *Odyssey*. Here life is inert, revived only by the occasional tasting of the blood of sacrificed victims. In Homer, there are no traces of rewards or punishments; for the Elysian Fields promised to Menelaus only hint at immortality, of which he, as son-in-law of Zeus, can partake. In the 7th–6th century B.C., Orphism attempts to give the Greeks a blessed vision of the afterlife, which the soul can reach if it has followed the Orphic discipline. In Orphic Hades, two paths open: the one on the right leads to the flowery fields of the good; the one on the left, where there is a spring shaded by a white cypress, leads to Tartarus, for the wicked.
The remains of painted decoration in Etruscan tombs give a vivid vision of the Etruscan afterlife, where the soul arrives on foot, on horseback, or in a chariot, and where terrifying demons dominate. Charun is a demon often winged and armed with a terrible hammer; Tuchulcha, another winged demon, with a beak like a vulture’s and two snakes on its head; Aita (Pluto) and Phersipnei (Persephone) are the two rulers of the underworld, while the Lasa (Fates) cut the thread of life.
According to the Romans, after death, the soul descends into Orcus, where it lives a shadowy life similar to that led in life, made more tolerable by the sacrifices and funeral offerings of the survivors. This abode is in communication with the living through a ritual pit called *mundus*.
This grim vision was lightened by Orphic and Neoplatonic theories, which spread in Rome toward the end of the Republic, and of which a sample is found in Cicero’s *Somnium Scipionis* and a description in Aeneid VI. Aeneas, having reached Orcus through a cave near Lake Avernus, crosses the Acheron and, after passing the antechamber where the unburied, the violently slain, and victims of fatal passions are found, comes to a fork. To the left lies Tartarus, which appears in the distance protected by a triple wall within which flows a river of fire, the Phlegethon; to the right lie the Elysian Fields, where the souls of the pious, amid flowers and shady groves of laurel, not only attend to their usual occupations but contemplate the order of the universe and listen to the harmony of the spheres, according to the Orphic-Pythagorean conception. Thus the hope of the immortality of the soul was maintained during the Empire, culminating in the 2nd century in the grand syncretism of solar theology, which saw in the sun the principle of the universe and into which, in the end, even the soul was reabsorbed, considered a spark of II.
Muslims imagine that after death the deceased will be subjected to the judgment of the two angels Munkar and Nakir, seated one to the right and one to the left of the tomb; but it is not clear how Muhammad conceived the condition of the soul between death and the final resurrection.
COLLECTIVE ESCHATOLOGY. - Mazdaism intends to assure universal salvation with the promise of a kingdom in which the just will enjoy happiness, no longer troubled by evil. This will occur 3,000 years after Zoroaster, who appeared 3,000 years after the first man. Since the Persians imagined a great cosmic period of 12,000 years, in relation to the 12 signs of the zodiac, divided into four periods of 3,000 years, corresponding to the four seasons. At the end of the world, Zoroaster, moving from the East, will, through a sacrifice, reduce the importance of the demons, who will be destroyed by the good spirits. This will be followed by the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment with the entry of the good into paradise and the wicked into hell, for only three days. Finally, a river of fire, formed from all pure elements, will purify the wicked and cause the past to be forgotten, guaranteeing forever blessed life and happy immortality.
Manichaeism also presents life as entirely good and evil, which, at the end of the world, will no longer obscure the souls that have accepted Manichaean preaching and, already purified, are transported by luminous vessels into the kingdom of light, where they form the column of glory. On the contrary, the souls still under the dominion of darkness, after losing in the popular fire the last particle of light, will remain as a shapeless mass.
In consequence of its immanentistic conception of the cosmos, Brahmanism does not admit an idea of the four ages of the world, each of 1200 divine years: each divine year comprises 300 civil years; of the four ages, three are mythical and the fourth corresponds to the historical age of India. A hundred of these ages form a kappa, at the end of which there will occur an apparent destruction of the world, in which all elements, men, and gods are reabsorbed into Brahma, the universal substance. He then falls into a long sleep, and when he awakens, the series of things will resume from the first age.
Late Buddhism also accepted the idea of the kappa with its attendant cataclysm followed by rebirth. The Stoics, according to Eschat, recognized in fire the vital principle of matter and the determinant of the succession of events in a series of periods. They further held that at the end of each period all the elements of the world, the soul not excepted, would be reabsorbed by fire in a conflagration (ἐκτρόφους).
Islam shares the emotional and eschatological outlook of Judaism and Christianity from which it derives. On the last day, men will scatter like butterflies and the mountains will fly like flakes of snow (Qur. 1. 3. 4). If God, in His judgment, finds it just, the Muslim will cross the Siroat bridge, stretched over the abyss, to enter the paradise of delight at the right hand of Allah. On the contrary, the unbeliever will remain forever, and the wicked manumano for a time, will fall from the bridge into the infernal abyss, which is sometimes conceived as a moving thing that Allah will advance on the day of universal judgment, and at other times as static, divided into seven circles and with seven gates.
II. IN SACRED SCRIPTURE
I. ERRONEOUS SYSTEMS
J. Weiss (1892), following the hints of T. Colani and W. Baldensperger, was the first to seek in the idea of the message of Christ the origin of the expectation of the imminent end of the universe (e. socratica); everything else, he argued, was a creation of the Christian community, which spontaneously formed in expectation of the end. The same evangelical morality, the only authentic expression of Christ’s teaching for liberal rationalists, would be contingent and a makeshift (Unterinstitik). Proof of this was seen in: Mt. 10, 2 seq.; 16, 27 seq.; 19, 28; 24 (especially V. 34); 26, 63 seq., and parallel passages: Lk. 17, 20-18, 8; to which were added the clear conviction of Paul that he was with his contemporaries at the parousia (v. PARUSIA) of Christ (I Thess. 4, 14-17; I Cor. 15, 51) and the morbid expectation of the faithful. Expressions such as “day of the Lord,” “parousia,” and “last times,” etc., were understood as referring to the end of the world. This system (e. temporale, zeitgeschichtliche: A. Loisy, A. Schweitzer) or first aspect of the so-called eschatological school remained in vogue until 1911.Prepared by E. Troeltsch and M. Kähler, the second period extends from 1922 to 1927: its exponents were K. Barth (Römerbrief, 2nd ed., Bern 1922) and the future Formgeschichte school (R. Bultmann, M. Dibelius, etc.). Eschatology is detached from time; no longer cosmic, but only individual. The Kingdom of God is the heavenly kingdom. Christianity not only leans entirely toward eternity but is altogether estranged from this world, having no relation to time or history (e. ungeschichtliche). Revealed doctrine is thus replaced by a philosophical-theological conception of our relationship with the hereafter.
K. Heim (1926) initiated the third tendency, in an attempt to reconcile the two previous ones. He admitted in time an eternal element, as a “preform” of eternity. This is the eschatology of Christian Revelation (offenbarunggeschichtliche). It recognizes in the message of Christ and in His redemptive death the beginning of a new era, the last, whose full manifestation will occur at the end of time (Ph. Bachmann, W. Kühn, W. G. Kümmel, O. Cullmann, etc.). “The essential element of the nearness of the kingdom is not the final date, but the certainty that the Redemption constitutes the decisive step toward the approach of the Kingdom of God” (O. Cullmann, Le retour..., p. 26 seq.; cf. F. Holmström, F. M. Braun).
The error of this system lies in having excessively accentuated, and thus falsified, one aspect of Jesus’ authentic teaching (L. De Grandmaison, II, p. 293 seq.). The eschatological element must be sought in Revelation and not in the apocrypha and rabbinic literature, which, moreover, in writings prior to Christ, contain nothing different (A. Médébielle, cols. 503-514).
II. ESCHATOLOGY IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT
In the Old Testament, eschatology is only collective, national, and messianic; everything is directed toward the Kingdom of the Messiah, which will elevate and absorb the nation as such, renewed in the post-exilic community (v. MESSIA = MESSIANISM). The idea of the physical end of the world is foreign to the Hebrew Bible. The expression בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, in a prophetic context, simply means the future, “in the days to come” (Gen. 49, 1; Num. 24, 14, etc.). In a messianic context (Is. 2, 2; Mi. 4, 1, etc.; cf. Ex. 38, 6, 16; Dan. 10, 14; in novissimis diebus or in novissimo dierum) it indicates the end of the era or of the times of the Old Testament (etymological sense of 'ahárith) and the beginning of the messianic era, considered perfect and definitive: the Kingdom of the Messiah will last forever (Dan. 7, 14-37, etc.).The same is true of the New Testament: the messianic time is called καρπός ἔσχατος (I Pt. 1, 5, 20; Jude 18; I Tim. 4, 1; I Jn. 2, 18); πάσχει τοῦ χρόνου (Gal. 4, 4); τῶν καρπῶν (Eph. 1, 10); τὰ τέλη τῶν αἰώνων (I Cor. 10, 11); συνέλεια τῶν αἰώνων (Hebr. 9, 26; cf. F. Spadafora, Ezechiele, Turin 1948, pp. 280 seq., 291 seq.; E. B. Allo, Apocalypse, p. cxix; J. Bansirven, p. 307 seq.).
The expressions used by the prophets to announce the day of Yahweh, i.e., the various manifestations of the justice of Yahweh against the nations (such as “the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light,” etc.: Is. 13, 10; 24, 34; Ez. 32, 7 seq.; Joel 2, 10; 3, 15; Zeph. 1, 15; etc.) are merely grandiose metaphors (J.-M. Lagrange; L. De Grandmaison; A. Médébielle, cols. 493-503); so too in Mt. 24, 29; Jer. 13, 24 seq.; Lk. 21, 25 seq.
As simple images are “new heavens and a new earth,” to express the profound renewal that the Messiah will bring about among men (Is. 65, 17; 66, 22; II Pt. 3, 13; cf. the παιγνισσία of Mt. 19, 28; the καινὴ κτίσις of Gal. 6, 15; II Cor. 5, 17; the passage from death to life of Jn. 5, 24-28; E. B. Allo, op. cit., p. 325). Finally, the various elements (angels, trumpets, fire, etc.) that accompany the manifestations of God as judge (Is. 34, 10; 66, 15; Dan. 7, 13 seq., etc.; Mt. 16, 27; 26, 63 seq.; Mk. 14, 61 seq., etc.) are merely descriptive, characteristic of prophetic style.
The edition of the New Testament is both individual and collectively universal. The Kingdom of God (v.) has a twofold phase, earthly and heavenly, in perfect continuity; there is only a difference in degree between them, not in nature (E. B. Allo, op. cit., p. cxix sg.). The Kingdom of God has already been inaugurated (Mt. 11, 12-15; 12, 28; Lk. 16, 16; 17, 20 sg.; 1 Cor. 15, 25); it must grow (Mt. 13, 31 sg.), throughout the world (Mk. 3, 13-19; 6, 7-13; 13, 9 sg.; 16, 15 sg.; 20, 21; 8, 8; etc.), and extend to the Gentiles (Mt. 8, 10 sg.; 21, 33-46; 22, 2-10, etc.); it is identified with the Church, with Peter at its head (Mt. 16, 13-20; Jn. 21, 15 sg.; 1 Cor. 12; Rom. 12, 3-8, etc.); it includes both good and bad (Mt. 13, 24-30; 36-43; 47-50; 25, 1-13, etc.); it is the economy of Grace (Jn. 1, 16 sg.; Rom. 3, 21-31, etc.), with a new moral legislation (Mt. 5, 6); it requires a spiritual rebirth (Jn. 3, 3-8; Rom. 6, etc.; cf. Médébiellie, cols. 517-25; Bonsirven, pp. 213-306). It is the same "eternal life," here below a life of grace, and in heaven a life of glory (Rom. 2, 7-10; 5, 2-3 sg.; 17, 6, 4-22 sg., etc.; cf. J.-M. Lagrange, *St Jean*, p. cxix sg.; Bonsirven, p. 331). The baptized person lives by the first and, if he perseveres, passes immediately after death into the other. Hence the importance of "being prepared," of "watching," so as not to fear the day of the Lord, His "coming" (v. RUSSIA) for us, sudden because absolutely unknown (Mt. 24, 37-51; 25, 1-30; Mk. 13, 32-37; Lk. 12, 16-21, 35-46; 17, 26-35; 21, 24-36; Rom. 13, 11-14; 14, 10 sg.; 1 Cor. 3, 10-15; 7, 29-32; 10, 1-12; Phil. 2, 15 sg.; etc.). It is the desire of the just to "die so as to be with Christ" (2 Cor. 5, 1-10; Phil. 1, 21-26, etc.; cf. Bonsirven, pp. 317-15).
To this present effect of the Redemption is joined the final one: the definitive victory over death in the resurrection (v.) of our bodies (Rom. 8, 10-30). This triumph will close the earthly phase of the Kingdom of God: all men, at the signal of the Ascension, will rise again; the just with their glorious bodies will fly up to Christ, while the wicked return to eternal punishment with their accursed bodies (cf. Mt. 25, 31-46; V. Giudizio). Christ will present the elect to the Father, handing everything over to Him (1 Thess. 4, 14-17; 1 Cor. 15, 12-28, 50-57; cf. E. B. Allo, *Ep. I Cor.*, pp. 387-454; Bonsirven, pp. 315-26). Here too, as in the Old Testament, no