Emerald Management Review:
The future according to Jesus: a Galilean model of foresight

Abstract:

Purpose - To propose a first-century Galilean model of how Jesus envisioned the future.

Design/methodology/approach - Puts forward a Galilean model of foresight, built on Jesus' futures framework of the near-term future as a dynamic of three paths: conventional future, counter future and creative future. Expands on each of these futures, suggesting that the future according to Jesus can be seen across Inayatullah's (2002) four-fold mental futures landscape: the jungle as day to day competition; the plains as the chess set of strategic manoeuvres; the mountain as an achievable goal; and the star as a vision of the future. Compares this model to other frameworks of the Kingdom of God according to the views of theological scholarship: the Kingdom as imminent; the Kingdom as existential; the Kingdom as inaugurated; and the Kingdom as contextual. Links the proposed Galilean model with the view that Jesus saw the Kingdom as contextual to his generation, as a great reversal that would transform Israel's covenant. Considers how futurists might use the Galilean model, how it might help students with religious backgrounds to connect to futures methods, how futurists should relate Jesus' first-century model of foresight to macrohistory models of universal history, and to what degree Jesus should be acknowledged as a futurist by futures studies.

Findings - Argues that Jesus is inseparably linked to our conception of time, history and the future, and that there is a need to rethink, teach and create the future according to Jesus.

Originality/value - Contributes to the futures literature, illuminating the framework that Jesus used to create the future, and proposing a Galilean model of foresight.

Keywords:

Article Type:

Research paper

Reference:

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