![Between Apocalypse and Eschaton: History and Eternity in Henri de Lubac (Joseph S. Flipper)](https://politicaltheology.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Flipper-book-600x600.png)
As a PhD student just starting my dissertation research I happened to meet the department chair of the theology department at a major Catholic university (my interlocutor and his university will remain anonymous). When he asked about my dissertation, I told him that I was researching Henri de Lubac. In a condescending voice he replied, “I didn’t realize anyone was still studying him.” I sheepishly responded, “Well, yes. Yes they are.”
![History and/as Political Theology](https://politicaltheology.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/religious-war.jpg)
There’s a fable I often heard growing up, about a Mennonite man (or Amish or Brethren, depending on where the story is being told) who was asked whether he was a Christian. His response: “Ask my neighbors.” The story encapsulates a certain historicist impulse in the Anabaptist tradition: the commitments we claim matter less than the commitments we embody. I first learned to care about the history of my community for just that reason. We learn who we are by considering honestly how we have lived.
![Russia, America, and the Rebirth of History (Carl Raschke)](https://politicaltheology.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Rolling-ocean-600x600.jpg)
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger,” Nietzsche wrote.
As the global neo-liberal order slowly unravels before our eyes, that recognition holds more true today than ever.