| Introduction | ix |
| Part 1 | There is a Magic in Every Beginning | |
| I | The Promise of the Child | 3 |
| The Mystery of the Child: Some Perspectives | 6 |
| The Messianic Child | 10 |
| Jesus and Children: The Revaluation of Values | 12 |
| Hope Which Shines Out for Everyone in Childhood | 15 |
| II | Does the Future Belong to the Young? | 19 |
| The Modern Discovery of Youth | 20 |
| The German 'Wandervogel' Youth Movement | 21 |
| The Hitler Youth | 24 |
| Consumer Children | 25 |
| The Future Makes Us Young | 27 |
| Part 2 | In my End is My Beginning | |
| III | New Beginnings in Catastrophes: Biblical Catastrophe Theology | 33 |
| Personal Experiences | 33 |
| The Flood and the Covenant with Noah: An Archetypal Image of the End of the World | 36 |
| Israel's Catastrophe and the Beginning of Judaism | 41 |
| The Golgotha Catastrophe and the Beginning of Christianity | 45 |
| Catastrophes of the Modern World: An End without a Beginning? | 48 |
| IV | Deliver Us from Evil: God's Righteousness and Justice and the Rebirth of Life | 53 |
| Critical Reservations about the Traditional Theological Interpretations of the Doctrine of Justification | 54 |
| The Cry for Justice | 56 |
| God Is Just when He Brings about Justice | 61 |
| Jesus Christ--God's Righteousness and Justice in the World of Victims and Perpetrators | 63 |
| The Resurrection of Christ with the Victims and Perpetrators of Evil | 74 |
| The Right of Inheritance of God's Children | 76 |
| The Justification of God | 77 |
| V | The Spirituality of the Wakeful Senses | 79 |
| 'Could You Not Watch with Me One Hour?' | 80 |
| Spiritual Paralyses Today | 81 |
| Praying and Awakening | 83 |
| 'Watchman, What of the Night?' | 86 |
| VI | The Living Power of Hope | 87 |
| The Reasonableness of Hope | 88 |
| The Sin of Despair | 93 |
| Part 3 | O Beginning Without Ending ... | |
| VII | Is There a Life after Death? | 101 |
| Is Death the Finish? | 101 |
| What Is Left of Life? Are We Mortal or Immortal? | 103 |
| Where Are the Dead? | 108 |
| The Future of the Life Cut Short and Spoiled | 116 |
| VIII | Mourning and Consoling | 119 |
| Experiences of Life and Death Today | 119 |
| Only Love Can Mourn | 122 |
| Mourning and Melancholia: A Discussion with Sigmund Freud | 125 |
| Consolation and the Rebirth to Life | 129 |
| IX | The Community of the Living and the Dead | 131 |
| The Ancestor Cult | 131 |
| Hope for Those Who Have Gone Before | 133 |
| Prayers for the Dead? | 136 |
| The Culture of Remembrance | 137 |
| X | What Awaits Us? | 139 |
| What Awaits Us at the Last Judgement? | 140 |
| Does Hell Threaten? | 145 |
| Is There Salvation for the Dead? | 148 |
| 'The Restoration of All Things' | 149 |
| XI | Eternal Life | 152 |
| What Are We Asking About? | 152 |
| How Can Human Life Become Eternal? | 155 |
| The Time of Eternal Life | 159 |
| The Place of Eternal Life | 160 |
| Will the Life We Have Lived Be Preserved in Eternal Life? | 161 |
| What Can We Know about Eternal Life? | 163 |
| Notes | 165 |
| Earlier Publications Relating to the Subjects Treated Here | 173 |
| Index | 175 |
