What has been realized concerning the teaching of the last things in the letters of Paul the Apostle? Based on Romans 5 8 various Pauline texts are examined and explained with the model of modalized time provided by cultural philosophy. For believers, earthly existence means presence in relation. Both Jesus Christ himself and the believers' relation to him create the essential center of Paul's realized eschatology. This teaching is displayed in the reality of the relation of men lived by faith to God, their fellow men and to themselves in Jesus Christ.

Dr. theol. Simon-Martin Schäfer ist Studienrat für Evangelische Religion und Englisch an einem Gymnasium in Baden-Württemberg.