Book Review | CREATION to ESCHATON

Today Scot McKnight (author of The Jesus Creed, The Blue Parakeet, Kingdom Conspiracy, among many others) posted a short review of my eschatology book on his website, Jesus Creed. You can find the review here. In the review, McKnight (who recently spoke at Northeastern Seminary) gives his particular take on the book, beginning with things he thinks I got wrong, then moving on to points of agreement.

I have posted some preliminary responses both to what he wrote and also to what others have written in response.

I would like to develop (at a later date) a more comprehensive response on this blog, analyzing McKnight’s lectures at Northeastern (he spoke in October 2014, on the topic of his book Kingdom Conspiracy). While he and agree on a lot (and I have the utmost respect for him), I think it would be helpful to explore some areas of disagreement, including why it matters.

To that end, Scot McKnight has asked me to work with him on a book addressing three views of the Kingdom of God. He and I would write two of three chapters (we haven’t yet decided on the third person). I have agreed to do this perhaps as early as Fall 2017, or more likely Fall 2018, after I complete my sabbatical project.

Although my eschatology book, A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology (Baker Academic, 2014), hasn’t hit the streets yet (that’s scheduled for November), the first review has appeared in Publishers Weekly (October 6, 2014), p. 6. It’s more like a brief notice than a full-fledged review, but it’s quite positive.

“Theologian Middleton tackles a huge question: is a glorious afterlife the best hope Christianity can offer, or does the promise of a new, redeemed Earth give humans hope for today? His biblically grounded answer is the latter. To make a convincing argument for what he calls ‘holistic eschatology,’ he goes through both testaments of the Bible, deep down to its Greek- and Hebrew-language roots, and also takes on the received wisdom of many a Christian hymn that extols the far-off heavenly shore. . . . The implications for lived faith are bold, and the air this brings into theological discourse about what God intends for human creation is fresh and bracing.”