A collection of essays and sermons from the author of the twentieth-century theological classic Honest to God.

Death, judgement, heaven and hell - these are the 'Four Last Things' traditionally linked together under the heading of 'Eschatology'. In this book, John Robinson examines them all with trenchancy and lucidity, providing a new and vital understanding of how these themes relate to contemporary Christian life. In the End, God identifies a gap that exists in the treatment of eschatology within the Christian faith. As Robinson points out, eschatology had traditionally dealt with the last things in a way that is remote and removed from everyday life and Christianity, and the goal of his book is to make eschatology fully relevant to the modern world. Although it is commonly held that eschatology within modern Christianity is centred on the fact and moment of death, Robinson shows that the true nature of eschatology is something quite different. It is not about the last things after everything else, but rather is about the relation of all things to the 'last things' or, as it were, about the 'lastness' of all things. Revealing the foundation of biblical eschatology to be the experience of God by the community of faith, Robinson calls readers to embrace the eschatological vision of the Bible, but to do so in a way that is alert to its mythic character. In the course of these explorations he also lays bare his own theology of universal salvation. However, contrary to what one may expect, this universalism is one that seeks to take both human freedom and the reality of hell with the utmost seriousness. This special edition of John A.T. Robinson's classic text also includes an extended introductory essay by Professor Trevor Hart of the University of St Andrews, and an exchange between Robinson and Thomas F. Torrance, first published in 1949 in the Scottish Journal of Theology.

One of the classic works of Johannine scholarship.

THE 1963 paperback Honest to God by Dr John Robinson, Bishop of Woolwich, has caused an immense discussion by its call for a revolution in Christianity. It has sold more quickly than any other new book of serious theology ever published. In this book David Edwards, the Editor of the Student Christian Movement Press, writes about the debate and its background. Fenton Morley gives his view of reactions to the book in the Church of England. A most unusual chapter consists of fifty letters which readers wrote to the Bishop, rebuking him, saying why they supported him, or telling him about their experiences. The 23 most significant reviews follow -gathered from a great newspaper or a Roman Catholic theological journal, from an agnostic or a famous religious thinker, from Britain, Germany, Australia and America. Three fresh chapters are contributed by John Macquarrie of New York, David Jenkins of Oxford and Daniel Jenkins of the University of Sussex, and Alasdair MacIntyre's article assessing contemporary theologians as fundamentally atheists is reprinted. Finally the Bishop clarifies his position in the light of this free and frank discussion. Here is a passionate debate, concerned with the deepest subjects which can challenge the human mind. The reader is left to judge where the truth for him lies.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing many of these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

A classic work of Pauline theology.

From the author of Honest to God and The Priority of John.

In this controversial study, first published in l957. Dr Robinson looked for the origins of the doctrine of the Second Coming in the belief of the early church. His conclusion, that the early church may well have misinterpreted the original teaching of Jesus on the issue, was based on a careful and thorough examination of the New Testament material. In his preface to this reissue, he writes: In the quarter of a century since I worked on the material I am not persuaded that the thesis of the hook has lost its importance Or its credibility. How and why the doctrine of the Parousia or Second Coming of Christ emerged in the thinking of the earliest Christian Communities remains of vital significance as we continue to wrestle today with how we can re-express it theologically, apply it politically, o mmunicate it pastorally or incorporate it liturgically. that part of Christian teaching which asserts that Christ has to come into everything would seem on the t face of it to he the easiest to make relevant. Yet how much of its traditional formulation rests On a mistake, or represents a myth we can scarcely make our own? Until we understand what in that primordial explosion of truth which marked the first decades of the Christian movement caused it to he thrown up. what positive insights it embodied--and. I would say, distorted--we shall not he free to proclaim it with conviction or to apply it with discernment.'

'if you want to find out how Robinson manages to date the whole of the NT before AD 70, you will have to follow him in this long and Oinstaking detective work. And the trail is indeed long, but by no means laborious, for Dr Robinson's style is easy, even conversational. A book as much for the beginner as for the academic NT scholar' (CEM Review), 'The greatest pleasure Dr Robinson gives is purely intellectual. His book is a prodigious virtuoso exercise in inductive reasoning, and an object-lesson in the nature of historical argument and historical knowledge. It is, I think, the finest of all his writings, and its energy is marvellous' (TheListener). 'in fewer than 400 pages, Bishop Robinson challenges almost all the judgments which teachers of the New Testament throughout the world commend to their pupils on the dating of the NT books : his reassessment has the simple effect of having them all completed before AD 70. The rumour of this revolutionary conclusion has already given the book notoriety and led some either to dismiss it out of hand or to lose patience with what is taken to be frivolous donnish antics. It would be a great pity if this were to become its dominant reputation, for it is, as we should expect, a work of extensive and careful scholarship, raising serious if unfashionable questions ... I am grateful to Bishop Robinson for compelling me to reopen my mind on any problems in the NT and happy to acknowledge with him that 'all the statements' which he puts forward 'should be taken as questions.' Many will profit from having to think afresh and to realize how little we truly know about the origin of those brief but powerful old books' (J. L. Houlden in New Fire).