The eschatological transfer of work in the Spirit: Further remarks

Abstract

Eschatologies of work, even in the micro field of the theology of work, are in a minority. How human work has any relation to the coming new creation takes some careful theologizing. This article seeks to correct one of my own theological decisions from my main contribution to the field thus far, The Good Work of Non-Christians, Empowerment, and the New Creation. The scholastic move to designate grace in human beings according to their faith status in Christ is typical of the Western Christian tradition. Commensurate with this tradition, a previous argument for a pneumatology of work with a strong eschatological trajectory followed the Western tradition’s splicing of grace in two. This article heeds aspects of the Eastern Sergius Bulgakov’s critique of such a separation of grace and finds common ground in his universal pneumatology with its connectivity to “the final age.” Even with clear eschatological points of departure from Bulgakov, his account of human synergy with God is fertile ground for the eschatology of work.