William J. La Due – författare

La Due offers an even-handed and accessible survey of the history of theological thought related to eschatology. He begins with the witness to the idea of eschatology in the Bible and then traces its early development from the early Church councils to the late nineteenth century. He devotes the next chapters to a consideration of various twentieth century New Testament theologians and systematic theologians. Included are Bultmann, Tillich, Rahner, Kung, Pannenberg, Moltmann, Hick, Cone, Ruether, and Elizabeth Johnson. In a day when the "Left Behind" series has focused everyone's attention on the end times, La Due's measured voice provides us with a wonderful guide to how we have come to this point.

The forms and shapes of the Christian churches in the last millennia have indeed been varied. La Due applies the scheme he applied to Jesus, the Trinity, and eschatology to the Church in this new historical overview of ecclesiology. He opens with a short description of the various models of the church found in the New Testament and follows that up with a review of what early Christian theologians such as Augustine had to say about the Church. La Due proceeds to examine the medieval papcy and the impetus it had for the Protestant Reformation, and he analyzes the ideas about the church held by Martin Luther, John Calvin, and the English Reformation. He then moves into the nineteenth century and twentieth centuries, offering overviews of theologians including Schleiermacher, Tillich, Hans Kung, Karl Rahner, Jurgen Moltmann, and Rosemary Ruether.