I will, however, take two essays I published
in the 1970s (both included
in Beyond
Belief) as intellectual benchmarks with respect to which I will measure
changes, developments and continuities
in the
subsequent years.
Subsequent events were disillusioning, but one option for a political theology which does not want to commit itself to
belief in a real consummatory End is to arouse hopes of relatively unambiguous
change for good
in society.