Derived from the Greek word, eschatos for 'last' or 'final,' eschatology is the doctrine of the 'Last Things'—"a time in the future when the course of history will be changed to such an extent that one can speak of an entirely new state of reality" , and embracing within it the resurrection of the dead, the Second Coming of Christ, the final judgment, and the creation of the new heaven and new earth. "More than a mere branch of theology, eschatology denotes that future-directedness of our entire present existence."
The term eschaton is often used as an English noun for the 'last days.'
There are a number of ways in which eschatology has been understood, centered on the question of when the Kingdom of God would be fulfilled, either 'already,' or 'future,' or 'both.'' The dominant view, pioneered and popularlized by G. E. Ladd, is what is called inaugurated eschatology, in which it is understood that Christ inaugurated the kingdom of God at his first coming, and though some aspects of that kingdom is already a reality, some remain to be fulfilled in the future. What is called consistent eschatology (also called thoroughgoing eschatology), often associated with the names of Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer, views the kingdom of God as wholly futuristic and apocalyptic; the teaching of Jesus and the apostles is thoroughly (hence its name) concerned with the imminent consummation of history. It is largely pessimistic in outlook and is hardly entertained by any serious scholars today though it is the bread-n-butter of doomsday cults' teaching. Realized Eschatalogy, first proposed by C. H. Dodd, asserts that the kingdom of God has been realized with the first coming of Jesus Christ, and will find its 'complete' fulfillment within history itself rather than at the end of history. Both these latter ways take, of course, an 'either/or' approach to their hermeneutic.
Beyond these broad conception of eschatology theologians are also concerned with questions as what are the implications of the end of history at the personal level (what is the nature of our resurrected body, immortality, scope and result of judgment, etc.?), historical level (Why the delay of the paraousia, will it be the "end of history" or merely "history's end", and what is the nature of the millennium?), cosmic level (What is the nature of the new heaven and new earth and its relationship to the present creation, the nature of hell and eternal punishment?) and divine level (What difference will it make? What will be the nature of our relation with God and His with us, as well as the relationship between the resurrected?).
F. F. Bruce, "The History of New Testament Study," in New Testament Interpretation: Essays on Principles and Methods, ed. I. Howard Marshall, (Carlisle: The Paternoster Press, revised 1979), pp.21-59. (On eschatology in the history of NT study, see esp., pp.47-48.) Pdf N 6-7 (Open on Phone)
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