ABSTRACT
Eschatology refers to doctrine about the ultimate destiny of humanity and the world; it is a discourse about endings and the events surrounding them (Hayes 1994; McGrath 1993). As Patterson (1995) observes, it became a theological buzzword around the turn of the century when it was realised that Jesus’s preaching as presented in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke is very much concerned with last things’. Theologians Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer were particularly influential in this respect, arguing that Jesus preached an imminent apocalyptic reign of God, about to bring the world to a violent and cataclysmic end.
