Qohelet Strikes Back: Christian Hope for Post-cynical World

Nevolja savremenog hrišćanstva ogleda se u tome što mu valja artikulisati eshatološku nadu jednom svetu koji je antiutopijski i koji, izgleda, nema potrebu za transcendencijom. Sekularizam je svrgnuo hrišćansku i uopšte transcendentalnu eshatološku nadu kao dominantnu na istorijskoj pozornici, pa ponudio sopstvene, imanentne. Ove su se pak same nasukale na hridi neosnovanog optimizma. S jedne strane, modernistička utopija progresa doživela je gorki podbačaj u XX. veku. S druge strane, evolucionistička postmoderna kvazinada nudi metanarativ koji objašnjava postojanje, ali ne nudi smisao tog postojanja. Hrišćanska eshatološka nada potencijalno popunjava nastali vakuum nade, pod uslovom da doživi biblijsku reinvenciju. U tom smislu, predložena teza je da hrišćanska eshatološka nada postaje kredibilna alternativa u današnjem kontekstu jedino kada biva informisana i oblikovana, između ostalog, jedinstvenom Koheletovom eshatologijom. Čitava knjiga Koheleta, ne samo njeni poslednji stihovi koji neposredno pominju Božji sud, predstavlja naoko primitivan i prevaziđen, a zapravo sveži primer druge naivnosti, neiskorišćeni resurs za artikulisanje življivog postciničnog hrišćanskog odgovora na savremenu krizu nade.The trouble of the Christian world is that it has to articulate eschatological hope to a world which is anti-utopian and which seemingly does not need transcendence. Secularism has dethroned Christian and generally, transcendental eschatological hope and off ered its own, immanent ones. Th ese have in turn ran ashore on rocks of unfounded optimism. On the one hand, the 20th century witnessed how utopia of progress failed sourly. On the other hand, evolutionistic postmodern quasi-hope off ered a metanarrative which explained existence but did not seem to off er meaning to it. Christian eschatological hope potentially fi lls the vacuum of hope but only if it goes through biblical reinvention. In that sense, the thesis is that Christian eschatological hope becomes credible alternative in the present context only when it is informed and formed by (among others) the unique eschatology of Qohelet. All of the book of Qohelet - not only its last verses where the judgement of God is explicitly mentioned, represents seemingly primitive and outdated but actually fresh examples of second naïveté , unused resource for articulating livable post-cynical Christian response to the contemporary crisis of hope