The Kingdom of God, Student Workbook, SW02

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T H E K I N G D O M O F G O D

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Models of the Kingdom Howard A Snyder, March 2002.

1. The Kingdom as Future Hope - the Future Kingdom

This has been a dominant model in the history of the Church. The emphasis is strongly on the future: a final culmination and reconciliation of all things which is more than merely the eternal existence of the soul. The model draws heavily on NT material. While some of the following models also represent future hope, here the note of futurity is determinative.

2. The Kingdom as Inner Spiritual Experience - the Interior Kingdom

A “spiritual kingdom” to be experienced in the heart or soul; “beatific vision.” Highly mystical, therefore individualistic; an experience that can’t really be shared with others. Examples: Julian of Norwich, other mystics; also some contemporary Protestant examples.

3. The Kingdom as Mystical Communion - the Heavenly Kingdom

The “communion of saints”; the Kingdom as essentially identified with heaven. Less individualistic. Often centers especially in worship and liturgy. Examples: John of Damascus, John Tauler; in somewhat different ways, Wesley and 19th and 20th-century revivalistic and Evangelical Protestantism. Kingdom is primarily other-worldly and future.

4. The Kingdom as Institutional Church - the Ecclesiastical Kingdom

The dominant view of medieval Christianity; dominant in Roman Catholicism until Vatican II. Pope as Vicar of Christ rules on earth in Christ’s stead. The tension between the Church and the Kingdom largely dissolves. Traces to Augustine’s City of God, but was developed differently from what Augustine believed. Protestant variations appear whenever the Church and Kingdom are too closely identified. Modern “Church Growth” thinking has been criticized at this point.