The kingdom of God: Utopian or existential?

HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The kingdom of God: Utopian or existential?
 
Creator Malan, Gert J.
 
Subject Theology; New Testament Studies; Gospel studies, historical Jesus studies kingdom of God; utopia; existential, metaphor; symbolic universe; root metaphor; patronage; identity formation; demythologisation; deconstruction
Description The kingdom of God was a central theme in Jesus’ vision. Was it meant to be understood as utopian as Mary Ann Beavis views it, or existential? In 1st century CE Palestine, kingdom of God was a political term meaning theocracy suggesting God’s patronage. Jesus used the term metaphorically to construct a new symbolic universe to legitimate a radical new way of living with God in opposition to the temple ideology of exclusivist covenantal nomism. The analogies of father and king served as the root metaphors for this symbolic universe. They are existential root metaphors underpinning the contextual symbolic universe of God’s patronage in reaction to the collapse of the patronage system which left peasants destitute. Jesus’ paradoxical use of the metaphor kingdom of God had a therapeutic value and gave the concept new meaning. The initial motivation for proclaiming God’s patronage originated in Jesus’ primary identity formation by Mary as single parent and was reinforced in his secondary identity formation by John the Baptist. From these results can be concluded that kingdom of God was not meant to be understood as utopian, but existential. In order to clarify the meaning of kingdom of God and God’s patronage for the 21st century, emythologisation and deconstruction can be helpful especially by highlighting the existential meaning of the kingdom of God.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor —
Date 2014-06-26
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Historical inquiry
Format text/html application/octet-stream text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/hts.v70i3.2109
 
Source HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies; Vol 70, No 3 (2014); 9 pages 2072-8050 0259-9422
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/2109/4624 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/2109/4625 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/2109/4626 https://hts.org.za/index.php/hts/article/view/2109/4622
 
Coverage Palestine First century CE First century Judea
Rights Copyright (c) 2014 Gert J. Malan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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