The blog eschata concerns whatever things I have lately been thinking about, reading and discussing.
“Eschata” is a Greek word meaning “last things.” The term can be used to refer to issues connected to the afterlife or “end of times” (sometimes mislabeled as “apocalypse”).
I named this blog “eschata” not only because of my fascination with eschatology, which is a term used in religious and cultural studies to denote beliefs and doctrinal systems concerning the teleological or temporal “ends” of human life and the universe.
I love to study and contemplate not only the ancient eschatological doctrines of Judaism and Christianity and other religions in the Mediterranean world, I also am interested in the apocalyptic and eschatological dimensions of modern thought, religious or otherwise.
But I am also interested in a lot of other stuff too.
In a technical, strictly temporal sense, it is always “the last days,” because the present moment of life is effectively the spear tip of existence. The past is behind us, the future is not yet, so whatever has just happened is “the last thing that happened.” In that sense therefore, whatever I’ve been thinking about lately is “eschata,” and that’s the true secret of the name of this blog.