Prolepsis is a Greek theater word. It is when the crowd–which is usually all the normal people in the play–come out and tell you at the beginning what’s about to happen at the end of the story and the meaning it has. So that you, the audience–when you’re watching the play–can come to see the insights and depth, and experience the play differently than the person who is actually going through it.

Prolepsis, when you take that notion and apply it to theology, is the idea that in the resurrection the first fruits of the new creation were born in Christ. So as we are experiencing God’s ongoing relationship with the world in history, we can experience it as one that already knows the promise of its future. That the future of the world is God, life in God, in the the Divine Being, and now we can experience it differently. It means that, eschatologically, you are being more realistic to the way the world really works when you love your enemy and turn the other cheek and go the extra mile and forgive without counting, because the world’s future is a reality where that is the case; and you’re going to embody that world in the midst even if it means you have to take up a cross.

The above quote comes from Tripp Fuller, co-host of Theology Nerd Throwdown and Hombrewed Christianity. Above Tripp is discussing eschatology and resurrection with Bo in the latest edition of TNT. It is a great chat, and I especially loved the part at the end when Tripp gets rollin’ on prolepsis! Good stuff guys!

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Painting above by Naum Gabo

Tags:echatologyGreek Playshomebrewed christianityJesusNuam GaboProlepsisResurection