According to Dodd, the early church believed that the kingdom was here and now.  Proto-influences in the ascension of Realized Eschatology are dated back to Erasmus.

Realized Eschatology

Clearinghouse for Seminar Studies related to the historical Jesus, to the life and travels of Paul, and to the autobasileus view of Jesus Christ found in Realized Eschatology, Inaugurated Eschatology, and other “Already/Not Yet” theologies.

INTRODUCTION

C.H. Dodd is considered the father of modern realized eschatology.  He uses the term kerygma as the proclaimed message of the early church. While he does not go as far as Bultmann in distinguishing between the kerygma and the actual message of Christ when He was on earth, he attempts to show that his concept of realized eschatology was the view of the early church.

According to Dodd, the early church believed that the kingdom was here and now.  Proto-influences in the ascension of Realized Eschatology are included in this archive, dating back to Erasmus.  Representatives of autobasileus theology prior to 1500 (such as Origen of Alexandria) are catgeorized in a different class.

LATEST ADDITIONS (12/20/18):

• 2013: Ben Chenoweth, Apocalyptic Eschatology and the Olivet Discourse – It would certainly be unwise to question the imminence of apocalyptic eschatology. In view of the social setting that gives rise to apocalypticism, imminence is a necessary characteristic: those suffering persecution and even death for their faith in the present evil age can only be encouraged to endure if they are reassured by the fact that the end of that age, and thus the end of their sufferings, is coming very soon. Imminence, then, is intrinsic to apocalyptic eschatology.
• 1926: Rudolph Bultmann, The Coming of the Kingdom of God – The coming of the Kingdom of God is not an event in the course of time, which is due to occur sometime and toward which man can either take a definite attitude or hold himself neutral. Before he takes any attitude he is already constrained to make his choice, and therefore he must understand that just this necessity of decision constitutes the essential part of his human nature. Jesus sees man thus in a crisis of decision before God.
• 1970: Charles Horne, Eschatology – The Controlling Thematic in Theology (pdf)

REFERENCE

• Bibliography: 2,000 Years of Josephus
• Bibliography: All PDF Files in the Preterist Archive
• Bibliography: “Vengeance of the Lord” and “Wandering Jew” Traditions
• Christian Flight to Pella Study Archive
• Dating the New Testament Books Study Archive
• Free Books on Realized Eschatology and Kingdom Theology
• The Olivet Discourse Study Archive
• Parousia Delay Study Archive
• Realized Eschatology Study Archive
• Significance of A.D. 70 Study Archive

RELEVANT WORKS:

• 1855: G.L. Stone: The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy; or, All pure prophecy terminated in the Advent of Christ and the establishment of  Christianity
• 1886: F.W. Farrar: The History of Interpretation
• 1904: Lewis Muirhead, The Eschatology of Jesus – Our Lord’s Apocalyptic Language in the Sypnoptic Gospels (pdf)
• 1908: Adolph Harnack: The Mission and Expansion of Christianity
• 1917: F.C. Grant, The Permanent Value of Primitive Christian Eschatology (pdf) – Unless all signs fail the most marked issue of the next few years in our evangelical theology will be eschatology. And back of our view of the meaning of eschalology will be our attitude toward the Scriptures. Here the issue is, as much as anything, one of method. How are we to gain the everlasting gospel from current conceptions of what that gospel is. This is a real task, worthy of real thinking. We may well pray that in our efforts to get at the heart of the gospel we shall be free from temptation to harsh judgments of others, and particularly of such rhetorical descriptions of their views as may do them injustice. Believing as we do that eschatalogical pictures of the early church are symbols rather than realities, we also believe that the truths they represent are of the utmost importance for anyone who would understand the Christian religion | Other Editions of The Biblical World
• 1919: L.P. Edwards, The Transformation of Early Christianity from an Eschatological to a Socialized Movement (pdf)
• 1921: Vladimir Simkhovitch, Towards the Understanding of Jesus (pdf)
• 1950: Richard Heard, Revelation and the Place of Apocalyptic in the Teaching of Jesus and the Early Church – One of the sections of this apocalypse deals with the sudden appearance of ‘the abomination of desolation’ (Dan. 11:31) and an accompanying tribulation in Judaea. In its present form this passage has been linked up rather awkwardly in a general series of events presaging the end of the world, but it may well once have been an independent oracle on the approaching doom of Jerusalem
• 1956: William Farmer: Maccabees, Zealots and Josephus
• 1956: Daniel Lamont: Sudies in Johannine Writings
• 1957: SGF Brandon: The Fall of Jerusalem and the Christian Church
• 1959: W.G. Kümmel: Futuristic and Realized Eschatology in the Earliest Stages of Christianity
• 1966: A.L. Moore, Parousia in the New Testament
• 1970: Norman Pittenger, The ‘Last Things’ in a Process Perspective
• 1970: John Walvoord, Realized Eschatology
• 1983: Julius Scott: The Effects of the Fall of Jerusalem on Christianity
• 1998: Craig Blomberg, Eschatology and the Church, New Testament Perspectives
• 1998: Julius Scott: Did Jerusalem Christians Flee to Pella?
• 2003: Paul Gibbs, Eschatology in the Gospel of John: Realized or Unrealized? (pdf)
• 2004: Randall Otto: Dealing with (Parousia) Delay
• 2004: Kent Ross: A Preterist Reviews The Resurrection of the Son of God by N. T. Wright
• 2005: J. Ligon Duncan, The Attractions of the New Perspective on Paul
• 2009: Scot McKnight, The Future of Christian Eschatology
• 2009: Fred Sanders, C.H. Dodd and Realized Eschatology – Jesus may be the eschatological man, but that doesn’t mean his eschatological work was complete in AD 33, AD 70, or last year.
• 2011: Kevin Kay, Realized Eschatology and Fulfillment Theology (pdf)
• 2011: Elizabeth Mburu, Realized Eschatology in the Soteriology of John’s Gospel (pdf)
• 2012: Taylor Marshall: Benedict XVI on the Realized Eschatology of C.H. Dodd
• 2014: Phumlani Majola, The Relationship Between Eschatological Hope and Christian Mission in the Theology of Moltmann (pdf)
• 2014: Riley Powell: N.T Wright On the Black Hole of Understanding About ‘Parousia’

MAIN ARTICLE COLLECTION
Typically Organized by Author’s First Name

A.L. Moore: Parousia in the New Testament (1966)

The church seems to have slackened its grasp upon the Parousia hope under pressure from materialistic thought; and western capitalism, naturally biased towards conservatism, has hardly encouraged the church to re-affirm its hope in the impending judgement and renewal of the present world order.

André Feuillet: The Speech of Jesus on the Ruin of the Temple (1965)

Not only does the distinction of two events separated by a long interval of time seem difficult to justify, but it also forces veritable feats of strength in the explanation of the parable of the fig tree and the words which follow.

Andrew Perriman: Two Unconventional Ways of Thinking about the Delay of the Parousia (2016)

The problem is not that the “end” that Jesus had in view has been delayed. If the end was a a war against Rome, there is nothing implausible about his prediction that the present generation of rebellious Israel would not pass away until all these things take place

Andrew Perriman: Wright and the Mission of the Early Church (2012)

the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost is also an eschatologically determined event: it is the empowering of the disciples to preach the same message of judgment and renewal as the Jewish War loomed ever larger on the horizon.

Anthony Buzzard: The Markan Apocalypse – The Core of the Christian Message (1992)

It must follow that a destruction of Jerusalem not followed immediately by the parousia does not match the outline of events given by Christ.

Anthony Coleman: Still Waiting for Jesus (2016)

Once the idea of Jesus as an Apocalyptic Prophet was presented to me the whole thing just made sense. The early Christians clearly expected Jesus to return immediately. The synoptic Gospels, on my reading, present Jesus as expecting a final judgment in the near future. It makes sense of his teaching, the warnings of judgment. ‘The Kingdom of God is at hand.

 

Bibliography: Fulfilled Eschatology Literature, by Century

Bibliography of works related to fulfilled eschatology from the 16th-21st centuries.   Searchable preterist books listed by century.

Bo Reicke Study Archive

he had solved the riddle of the Pastorals and the “deutero-Paulines” by fitting them seamlessly into Paul’s work as known from Acts and from the acknowledged Pauline letters

Brant Pitre. Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of Exile (2005)

Before the destruction of the Second Temple, there was clearly a widespread expectation that a time of suffering and catastrophe would in some way be related to the advent of the eschatological deliverer of the last days

Brian King: The Presence of Eschatology and Apocalypticism in the Teaching of Jesus Christ (1999)

For most biblical scholars, the delay of the Second Coming of the Messiah “was the single most important factor for the transformation of early Christian eschatology from an emphasis on the imminent expectation of the end to a vague expectation set in the more distant future

Firmin Abauzit (Proto)

• 1730: An Historical Discourse on the Apocalypse | Discours Historique sur l’Apocalipse (pdf)

Dale C. Allison Jr.

• 1994: Dale Allison, A Plea For Thoroughgoing Eschatology 
• 1996: Dale Allison, Review of Hagner’s Matthew 14-28 (pdf)

David E. Aune

• 1965: David Aune, Justin Martyr’s Use of the Old Testament (pdf)
• 1966: David Aune, “Justin Martyr’s use of the Old Testament,” Bulletin of the Evangelical Theological Society 9.4 (Fall 1966): 179-197
• 1969: David Aune, “Early Christian Biblical Interpretation,” The Evangelical Quarterly 41.2 (April-May 1969): 89-96
• 1969: David Aune, Early Christian Biblical Interpretation
• 1986: David Aune, The Apocalypse of John and the Problem of Genre (pdf)
• 1988: David Aune, Detailed Outline of the Book of Revelation (pdf)
• 2005: David Aune, Understanding Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic (pdf)
• 2006: David Aune, The Apocalypse of John and Palestinian Jewish Apocalyptic (pdf)
• 2012: David Aune, Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

SEE ALSO:

• 1985: D.A. Carson, Review of Aune (pdf)

G.K. Beale

• Exposition of Revelation (MP3 Series)
• 1980: The Use of Daniel in Jewish Apocalyptic Literature and in the Revelation of St. John
• 1998: John’s Use of the Old Testament in Revelation
• 1998: The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text
• 1999: Peace and Mercy Upon the Israel of God: The Old Testament Background in Galatians 6:16 “The analysis confirms those prior studies which have concluded that “the Israel of God” refers to all Christians in Galatia, whether Jewish or Christian.”
• 1999: The eschatological conception of New Testament theology
• 1999 PDF: Craig Koester, Review of Beale’s Temple and the Church’s Mission
• 2004: The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God
• 2005:  “Eden, the Temple, and the Church’s Mission in the New Creation”. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society. 48 (1): 5–31.
• 2007: Why is the New Heavens and Earth Equated with the Temple? (Audio Series)
• 2013: Eschatology and the Book of Revelation (Video Series)
• 2014: God Dwells Among Us: expanding Eden to the ends of the earth
• 2016: G.K. Beale and Thomas Schreiner on Revelation (Video)

G.R. Beasley-Murray

• 1946 PDF: The Relation of the Fourth Gospel to the Apocalypse
• 1948 PDF: Apocalyptic Literature and the Book of Revelation
• 1951 PDF: The Second Coming in the Book of Revelation
• 1954: Jesus and the Future: An Examination of the Criticism of the Eschatological Discourse, Mark 13, with special Reference to the Little Apocalypse Theory
• 1974 PDF: How Christian is the Book of Revelation?
• 1981: Revelation (New Century Bible Commentary) | 2010 Reprint
• 1983: The Coming of God
• 1986: Jesus and the Kingdom of God
• 1987 PDF: Jesus and the Kingdom of God
• 1988: Eschatology and the New Testament: Essays in Honor of George Raymond Beasley-Murray
• 1992 PDF: The Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus
• 1992 PDF: Craig Blomberg, A Response to Beasley-Murray on the Kingdom
• 1993: Jesus and the last days: the interpretation of the Olivet discourse
• 1996 PDF: Thomas Hatina, Mark 13: Parousia, or the Destruction of the Temple
• 2001 PDF: D. Moody Smith, Johannine Studies Since Bultmann
• 2002: Paul Beasley-Murray, Fearless for the Truth: Personal Portrait of George Beasley-Murray | PDF: Chapter One
• 2005 PDF: Craig Evans, Inaugurating the Kingdom of God and Defeating the Kingdom of Satan

F.F. Bruce

• 1958: F.F. Bruce, Eschatology (pdf)
• 1959: F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?
• 1960: F.F. Bruce, The Scottish Reformation (pdf)
• 1964: F.F. Bruce, Paul in Rome: Series (pdf)
• 1966: F.F. Bruce, The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christianity (pdf)
• 1976: F.F. Bruce, Lessons from the Early Church (pdf)
• 1977: F.F. Bruce, Flesh and Spirit
• 1977: F.F. Bruce, The Primary and Plenary Senses (pdf)
• 1977: F.F. Bruce, The Time is Fulfilled Video
• 1978: F.F. Bruce, Christian Destiny, Christ Our Hope (pdf)
• 1987: F.F. Bruce, Problem Texts (pdf)
• 1989: F.F. Bruce, Eschatology, Understanding the End of Days (pdf)
• 1989: Interview with F.F. Bruce (pdf)

• 1975: Rod Decker: Werner Kümmel letter to F. F. Bruce

Rudolph Bultmann

• 1926: Rudolph Bultmann, The Coming of the Kingdom of God – The coming of the Kingdom of God is not an event in the course of time, which is due to occur sometime and toward which man can either take a definite attitude or hold himself neutral. Before he takes any attitude he is already constrained to make his choice, and therefore he must understand that just this necessity of decision constitutes the essential part of his human nature. Jesus sees man thus in a crisis of decision before God.
• 1953: Rudolph Bultmann, Kerygma and Myth by Rudolf Bultmann and Five Critics

D.A. Carson

• Lectures on the Book of Revelation (Audio)
• 1975: The Nature of the Kingdom (pdf)
• 1975: Dictionary: Escape/Flee (pdf)
• 1976: Review: On Hengel (pdf)
• 1976: Review: On Ladd (pdf)
• 1976: Review: Two Views of John (pdf)
• 1976: Current Source Criticism of the Fourth Gospel (pdf)
• 1979: The Function of the Paraclete (pdf)
• 1980: Adam in the Epistles of Paul (pdf)
• 1980: Hermeneutics: A Brief Assessment of Recent Trends(pdf)
• 1981: Divine Sovereignty in Philo (pdf)
• 1981: Hermeneutics: A Brief Assessment of Recent Trends (pdf)
• 1981: Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel:  After Dodd, What? | Reformatted (pdf)
• 1983: Redaction Criticism: On  the Legitimacy and Illegitimacy of a Literary Tool (pdf)
• 1984: Review: On Bruce (pdf)
• 1985: Review: On Aune (pdf)
• 1986: Recent Developments in the Doctrine of Scripture (pdf)
• 1987: The Purpose of the Fourth Gospel: John 20:31 (pdf)
• 1987: Waiting for the Kingdom and the King (pdf)
• 1992: The Purpose of Signs and Wonders in the New Testament (pdf)
• 1994: A Test Case on the Basis of Q in the Synoptic Problem
• 1994: The Three Witnesses and the Eschatology of First John
• 1995: Jesus, the Temple of God (pdf)
• 1995: Review: On N.T. Wright (pdf)
• 2000: Pseduonymity and Pseudepigraphy | Reformatted (pdf)
• 2008: SBJT Forum on the Kingdom(pdf)
• 2010: From the Resurrection to His Return (pdf)
• 2014: Lecture on Eschatology (Video)

• 1963: David Aune, Early Biblical Interpretation
• 2003: Richard Mayhue, Jesus: A Preterist, or a Futurist?
• 2007: Kirk Wellum, Consistent Preterism and The Integrity of Jesus (pdf)
• 2013: Steve Hays: MacArthurite Preterists (Charismata and Cessationism) – One other fallback position would be to renounce their premillennialism for preterism. They could then say the charismata terminated in the 1C because Christ returned in the 1C, appearances to the contrary not withstanding. 

• 2014 Joel Richardson, N.T. Wright’s Perversion of Biblical Hope

Oscar Cullman

• 1956: Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead? – Professor Cullmann compares the Greek conception of the immortality of the soul with the early Christian conception of the resurrection, and shows that they are so different in orgin and in translation into experience as to be mutually exclusive. To the Greek, death was a friend. To the Christian death was the last enemy, but the enemy conquered by Christ in His resurrection, and conquered by all who are His.

P.S. Desprez (Proto)

• 1865: P.S. Desprez: Daniel; or, The Apocalypse of the Old Testament
• 1870: P.S. Desprez: John; or, The apocalypse of the New Testament

C.H. Dodd (Central Figure: Coined term Realized Eschatology; Re-amplified Kingdom of God studies)

• 1920: C.H. Dodd, The Gospel in the New Testament (pdf)
• 1920: C.H. Dodd, The Meaning of Paul for Today (pdf)
• 1935: C.H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and Its Developments – What was the attitude of the apostles at the beginning? We must remember that the early Church handed down as a saying of the Lord, “The Kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. xii. 28, Luke xi. 20). This means that the great divine event, the eschaton, has already entered history. In agreement with this, the preaching both of Paul and of the Jerusalem Church affirms that the decisive thing has already happened. The prophecies are fulfilled; God has shown His “mighty works”; the Messiah has come; He has been exalted to the right hand of God; He has given the Spirit which according to the prophets should come “in the last days.”
• 1935: C.H. Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks (pdf)
• 1938: C.H. Dodd, History and the Gospel (pdf)
• 1953: C.H. Dodd, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (pdf)
• 1953: C.H. Dodd, Sub-structure of New Testament Theology (pdf)
• 1956: C.H. Dodd, The Bible Today
• 1968: C.H. Dodd, More New Testament Studies
• 1970: C.H. Dodd, The Founder of Christianity

SEE ALSO:

• 1910: Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus
• 1914: Albert Schweitzer, Mystery of the Kingdom of God
• 1959: W.G. Kümmel: Futuristic and Realized Eschatology in the Earliest Stages of Christianity
• 1970: John Walvoord, Realized Eschatology
• 1981: D.A. Carson, Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel:  After Dodd, What? | Reformatted
• 2003: N.H. Taylor, The destruction of Jerusalem and the transmission of the Synoptic eschatological discourse (pdf)
• 2009: Fred Sanders, C.H. Dodd and Realized Eschatology – Jesus may be the eschatological man, but that doesn’t mean his eschatological work was complete in AD 33, AD 70, or last year.
• 2012: Pope Benedict XVI’s Statement on C.H. Dodd

What was the attitude of the apostles at the beginning? We must remember that the early Church handed down as a saying of the Lord, “The Kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. xii. 28, Luke xi. 20). This means that the great divine event, the eschaton, has already entered history. In agreement with this, the preaching both o~ Paul and of the Jerusalem Church affirms that the decisive thing has already happened. The prophecies are fulfilled; God has shown His “mighty works”; the Messiah has come; He has been exalted to the right hand of God; He has given the Spirit which according to the prophets should come “in the last days.” Thus all that remains is the completion of that which is already in being. It is not to introduce a new order of things that the Lord will come; it is only to finish His work. The Church believed that the Lord had said, “You will see the Son of Man seated on the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven” (Mark xiv. 6z). One part of the vision was fulfilled: by the eye of faith they already saw Him on the right hand of God. Why should the conclusion of the vision delay? (The Apostolic Teaching, ch. 1)

Erasmus of Rotterdam (PROTO #1)

• 1992: Todd Dennis, Calvin vs. Sadoleto (Searching; INFO)

George E. Ladd

F.D. Maurice (Proto)

• 1846: F.D. Maurice, Epistle to the Hebrews
• 1853: F.D. Maurice, Sermons on the Sabbath
• 1854: F.D. Maurice, Conclusion to Theological Essays
• 1854: F.D. Maurice, The Word “Eternal” and the Punishment of the World
• 1857: F.D. Maurice, The Epistles of John – Last Things
• 1859: F.D. Maurice, What is Revelation?
• 1860: F.D. Maurice, Sequel to What is Revelation?
• 1861: Lectures on the Apocalypse: Or, Book of Revelation of St. John the Divine – “The principal historical allusions in these Lectures are to the state of the Roman world during the years preceding the fall of Jerusalem.”
• 1894: F.D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament

SEE ALSO:

• 1880: Richard Hutton, Essay on F.D. Maurice’s View of Revelation
• 1973:  Torben Christensen, The Divine Order: A Study in F. D. Maurice’s Theology
• 2005: Brant Pitre. Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of Exile

• The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven: A Course of Lectures on the Gospel of St. Luke

Jürgen Moltmann

• 2017: Wyatt Houtz: Jürgen Moltmann on the End of Time and Eternity

A.L. Moore

• 1966: A.L. Moore: Parousia in the New Testament
• 1967: A.L. Moore, Delay of the Parousia in the New Testament (pdf)

C.F.D. Moule

• 2007: D.A. Carson, Review of Moule’s Contribution (pdf)

Norman Perrin

• 1967: Rediscovering the Teaching of Jesus – An attempt to establish what may be known with reasonable certainty of the teaching of Jesus, “an irreducible minimum of historical knowledge available to us at the present time” (1967). Fully appreciative of Bultmann, yet advancing beyond his work, the author opens up a new approach to understanding the significance of the teaching of Jesus.

Bo Reicke

• 1968: Bo Reicke, The New Testament Era: The World of the Bible from 500 B.C. to A.D. 100
• 1972: Bo Reicke, Synoptic Prophecies on the Destruction of Jerusalem
• 2001: Bo Reicke, Re-examining Paul’s Letters: The History of the Pauline Correspondence
• 2005: Bo Reicke, The Disobedient Spirits and Christian Baptism – A Study of 1 Peter 3:19 and Its Context

SEE ALSO:

• 1976: J.A.T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament
• 2013: Stanley Porter, Reicke and Robinson The second position, by Reicke and Robinson, argues along similar lines as do van Bruggen and Johnson. They note that the prison letters and 2 Timothy have many elements in common, including those listed as colleagues in both 2 Timothy and the prison epistles. The major difference is that Reicke and Robinson both place all of the prison epistles and 2 Timothy during Paul’s two year Caesarean imprisonment under Roman authority.

Ernest Renan (Proto)

J.A.T. Robinson

• 1962: The Gospel of John (pdf)
• 1976: Redating the New Testament

SEE ALSO:

• 7Q5 – Earliest NT Papyrus Fragment – Gospel of Mark
• 1996: Eyewitness to Jesus: Book Review: Eyewitness to Jesus (pdf)
• 2013: Ralph Smith, Dating Matthew: When the Son of Man Didn’t Come

Albert Schweitzer

• 1906: Quest for the Historical Jesus – The apocalyptic discourses in Mark xiii., Matt. xxiv., and Luke xxi. are interpolated. A Jewish-Christian apocalypse of the first century, probably composed before the destruction of Jerusalem, has been interwoven with a short exhortation which Jesus gave on the occasion when He predicted the destruction of the temple..  His construction rests upon two main points of support; upon his view of the sources and his conception of the eschatology of the time of Jesus. In his view the sole source for the Life of Jesus is the Gospel of Mark, which was “probably written exactly in the year 73,” five years after the Johannine apocalypse.

SEE ALSO:

• 2004: Randall Otto: Dealing with (Parousia) Delay

N.T. Wright

• 2003: N.T. Wright: On The Resurrection of the Son of God

SEE ALSO:

• 2012: Andrew Perriman: Wright and the mission of the early church