Causing a considerable stir when it was first published in Germany in 1965, this work represents a comprehensive statement of the importance for theology of eschatology - and of an eschatological theology which emphasizes the revolutionary effect of Christian hope upon the thought, institutions and conditions of life in the here and now. Moltmann understands Christian faith essentially as hope for the future of humankind and creation as this has been promised by the God of the exodus and the resurrection of the crucified Jesus. God's promise is the compulsory force of history, awakening hope which keeps human beings unreconciled to present experience, sets them in contradistinction to prevailing natural and social powers, and makes the church the source of continual new impulses towards, in Moltmann's own words, "the realization of righteousness, freedom and humanity in the light of the promised future that is to come".