Friday, May 22, 2015

Don't immanentize the eschaton. Huh?

I almost never encounter a phrase which I can't at least guestimate the meaning of even if I don't know it. But I did today in someone's comment on a master regional plan. The commenter said, "Don't immanentize the eschaton." Huh?

Well, apparently it is, according to Wikipedia, alive in some circles. Once I read the explanation, I can see the clues I should have noticed as to the meaning. But I couldn't have gotten to there without the guidepost.
In political theory and theology, to immanentize the eschaton means trying to bring about the eschaton (the final, heaven-like stage of history) in the immanent world. It has been used by conservative critics as a pejorative reference to certain utopian projects, such as socialism, communism, and transhumanism. In all these contexts it means "trying to make that which belongs to the afterlife happen here and now (on Earth)" or "trying to create heaven here on Earth." Theologically the belief is akin to Postmillennialism as reflected in the Social Gospel of the 1880-1930 era, as well as Protestant reform movements during the Second Great Awakening in the 1830s and 1840s such as abolitionism.

I suppose "don't immanentize the eschaton" is a more succinct way of saying, "don't coercively impose an ideologically conceived solution to a complex problem on a reluctant population without full consent and involvement and without robust evidence of likely outcomes" but that still doesn't seem to be an effective form of communication.

No comments:

Post a Comment