Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 95 No. 3, 2025.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.53745/bs.95.3.8
Memory, Imagination, and Prophetic Thought: The Paths of Explaining Christian Hope to Modern Man
Jakov Rađa
; Catholic Faculty of Theology University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The aim of the article is to explore the manners in which Christian faith is explained convincingly and authentically to modern man. Beginning with an invitation from the First Epistle of Peter (1 Pt 3:15), a methodology is developed that insists on the integrity of the human person: renewal of historical consciousness in relation to God’s promises from the past; shaping and directing imagination in accordance with the evangelical vision of man and society; and the prophetic dimension of Christian thought which recognizes signs of Christ’s presence in the world. The article underscores that the apology of hope exceeds the indisputably important relationship between faith and reason in order to focus on the authentic testimony of life. In conclusion, the au thenticity of Christian hope delivers a nuanced approach: rooted in history, engaged in the present and open to eschatological fullness. Each of the three steps is supported by a return to the fatherly and medieval method of hope, which is understood not only as a testimony to an extraordinary period in the history of theology, but also as a paradigm of Christian thought that is not to be lost in any theological period.
Keywords
Apology; Hope; Memory; Imagination; Signs of the times; Henri de Lubac
Hrčak ID:
336770
URI
Publication date:
29.10.2025.
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