The Eschatological Economy: Time and the Hospitality of God is a book about Christian theology proper, that is, about the economy of God. In six chapters, Knight discusses the realms of being and becoming from the perspective of the scriptures, historical theology, systematic theology, and philosophy, and suggests a direction in which the Trinitarian doctrine of God defines the world and human existence.
Fundamental to this task is a theory of persons in relationship that unfolds to a series of new analogies for God’s work in creation, the human being, the church, and the modern world. Knight argues that the modern world is based on a truncated economy of nature that is unable to establish its identity. Thus, he offers a manifesto for theological discussion and religious language that places the economy of the one God at the center of the modern understanding of life.
As a result, Knight defines the responsibilities of contemporary theology as restating and reformulating the public and political purpose of the doctrine of God. This challenging book is an ambitious project that engages the powers of the theological discipline by changing the terminology of the discussion and bringing into conversation an almost unmanageable variety of voices and aspects.
The persistent reader is rewarded with a plethora of new ideas that will challenge the modern debate on questions of the continuing significance of theological inquiry, the responsibility of the church, and the understanding of God’s work driven by an eschatological vision of the end, the hope that God has for humanity.
Wolfgang Vondey Regent University Religious Studies Review 33.1 (2007): 42.
