The Eschatology of Ignatius of Antioch

Abstract

"A local educational television station recently presented a panel discussion on the question, "Can one have Christianity without Christ?" One who has kept current in his theological reading will not be surprised to learn that every member of the panel except one tried very hard to justify an affirmative answer. As Carl F. H. Henry has noted, "The central problem of New Testament studies today is to delineate Jesus of Nazareth without dissolving Him as the Bultrnannians did, without demeaning Him as many dialectical theologians did, and without reconstructing Him as nineteenth-century historicism did, so that it becomes clear why and how He is decisive for Christian faith."' The past two years of this journal have seen more articles on the historiography of the Scriptures or the Christian faith than any other topic.2 Clearly history is a live issue among theologians ( and philosophers as well) who are alive to the thought patterns of recent decades"