Sperare o aspirare?

Divergenze e convergenze tra Future Studies e concezione teologica del futuro

Abstract

The article addresses the different conceptions about “the future” shared by Christian theology and futures studies. Where the latter are based on the idea of a plurality of possible futures, theology asserts the existence of a predetermined future whose conclusion coincides with the Parousia. The article shows how the comparison between these two different conceptions, since the 1970s, favored a gradual convergence, as the traditional notion of “prediction” of the future was gradually dismissed, replaced by the new notion of anticipation, which incorporates the issues of hope (though Jürgen Moltmann’s theology of hope) and the aspirations shared by different social groups. The future as an extrapolation of the present (futurum, i.e. the future that “will be”) is replaced by the future as a horizon of expectation able of generating change in the present (adventus, i.e. the coming future).