A escatologia cristã e o platonismo: o contributo de J. Ratzinger para a desconstrução de um postulado

This study constitutes a record of the argumentation used by Joseph Ratzinger in his treatise on eschatology and of his contribution to the deconstruction of an assumed presupposition in eschatology, particularly in the context of Protestant theology, but which has also found considerable adherence in Catholic theology, according to which Christian eschatology owes something to schemes of Greek thinking. In his attempt do deplatonise eschatology, Ratzinger came progressively to the view that ecclesial feeling is critically separate from the Greek scheme of things and that in its anthropological conception of the soul-body relationship it is essentially Christian, thus underlining the novelty of the Christian concept of Man in his metaphysical constitution, with considerable consequences for eschatology and very particularly for intermediate eschatology. Ecclesial feeling emerges as a theological criterion and a principle of verification of the truth or untruth of theories. The present text seeks to emphasise the contribution of Ratzinger’s study to eschatology, as much from the point of view of method as from the systematic point of view.