This is a new “word” I learnt from Ted Peters after dancing through 34 pages of his Systematic theology. Here’s his intention for the whole book from the start (there’s much to digest in the pages ahead), here’s a peek:
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By proleptic consciousness I am referring to our awareness and anticipation ahead of time of the future whole. Such awareness and anticipation are based upon God’s promise and upon faith in God’s faithfulness.
The blueprint for structuring such proleptic theology will follow a destiny-wholeness-integration formula. We will see that the gospel of Jesus Christ is essentially a promise for the future. In fact, it is more than just a promise. It actually embodies ahead of time the future God has promised for the whole of creation, namely, new creation. If the gospel be the key to understanding reality, which I believe is the central Christian commitment, then it defines what seems to follow that what is real is future-oriented. Destiny determines and defines what things are. Further, only at fulfillment of the divine promise will reality itself become a whole, and only with this whole of wholes will the true nature of all the participating parts — including ourselves — be revealed. Only in the light of the God-determined whole can we apprehend the purpose according to which all the world processes and human enterprises will be integrated, according to which separated and fragmented parts will be transformed into an integrated unity. Of course, that God-determined whole is not yet actual. It does not yet exist. But it has been revealed — it has been incarnated — ahead of time in the life, death, and resurrection of the Nazarene. Hence, it is to Jesus Christ that one must look to find human destiny, to gain a vision of the whole, and according to which people can integrate the disparate elements of their lives. A life so integrated around Christ is a proleptic life. It is the future actualized ahead of time. It isnew life in the midst of the old life. It is beatitudinal life because it is true life. It is beatitude. (pp. 21-22, emphasis mine)
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