The politics of the kingdom in the theologies of T. C. Chao, Juergen Moltmann, and Stanley Hauerwas.

摘要

God's reign is a comprehensive concept which covers a wide range of issues including transcendence and immanence, eschatology and history, the right and the good, individuality and sociality, and church and society. It is a red thread weaving through the hearts of the theologies of Chao, Moltmann, and Hauerwas, which provides them with a horizon to critically engage tradition, modernity, and postmodernity.;This study examines how the three perspectives can be mutually illuminated, their insights can be incorporated, and their weaknesses can be avoided so that an adequate understanding of God's reign can be achieved. My thesis is that the notion of God's reign is multidimensional: it is a universal horizon that does not exclude historical particularities; it involves social critique and engagement yet without ignoring the enactment of Christian conviction in the ecclesial community; and it is also closely related to our daily life through our character cultivation.;Chapter 1 is an introduction to the three theologians including their theological approaches, their primary concerns in their interpretations of God's reign, and their basic hermeneutical problems.;Chapter 2 is devoted to an examination of Chao's three dimensional interpretation of God's reign that is universal, personal, and ecclesial/social. By exposing Chao's accommodation to both Confucian and modernity's confidence in the continuity between past, present, and future, it is argued that Chao's notion of God's reign is socially teleological rather than eschatological.;Chapter 3 explores God's reign as the Trinitarian kingdom of freedom in Moltmann's theology. It is asserted that Moltmann's notion of God's reign is an appreciative yet critical response to modernity's project of freedom and liberation. His eschatological interpretation of God's reign offers a universal horizon to critically evaluate the modern world as well as an affirmative way to recognize the contributions of some modern secular experience to God's reign.;Chapter 4 exposes Hauerwas's postliberal interpretation of God's reign. By situating Hauerwas in a postmodern ethos, this dissertation claims that Hauerwas' turn to the particularity of the Christian narrative spurs him to affirm ecclesial community as the embodiment of God's reign of peace. It is also recognized that character formation is crucial to the existence of eschatological community and its witness to the peaceable kingdom.;Chapter 5 compares and contrasts some key elements, such as the universality of God's reign, a critical theory under the kingdom vision, ecclesial community and social engagement, and kingdom habituated in our hearts in Chao, Moltmann, and Hauerwas' interpretations of God's reign. It is emphasized that these elements must be incorporated so as to form an adequate view of God's reign.