"Image of God"—A Resident Ailen

Abstract

The quote from Vítor Westhelle’s Eschatology and Space that introduces this essay serves as a riddle, a technical usage characteristic of Westhelle’s writing style in introducing a central teaching of faith that traditionally would be communicated in a clear and common-sense manner. How does the incoming Reign of God become an eschatological vision stated in a multilayered topological or longitudinal perspective? For the author, the answer may be acknowledged by using the controversial term of “resident alien,” a term usually employed to demean the diversity of creation by some who expect this divine reign to take place in a univocal transcendental or longitudinal understanding of eschatology. To overcome the sinful propensity to see in the “other,” or creation, an adverse “resident alien,” we are called to see in “resident aliens” a more positive and transformative image of God taking place in the diverse topological eschatological semblance of creation.