Jürgen Moltmann

Spirit Renewed Ecclesiology: The Contribution of Moltmann’s Pneumatology for the Church

01/27/2015 by luke.geraty

"The Molt" Of contemporary Protestant theologians, Jürgen Moltmann stands among giants as he is considered one of the most influential and widely read systematicians of his time.[1] Though Moltmann was Professor of Theology at Tübingen from 1967 to 1994, he spent a number of his early years as a pastor at the Evangelical Church of Bremen-Wasserhorst.[2] This is likely why he is both an influential academic theologian and a “man of the church.”

Moltmann has written many popular and influential volumes, including Theology of Hope (1964) and Crucified God (1972). Due to “the fact that he draws from so many different sources,” Moltmann’s theology is “not only contemporary but also contextually relevant.”[3] As an ecumenical dialogue participant,[4] Moltmann’s engagement with the Eastern Orthodox Church, especially Eastern spirituality, has had tremendous influence upon his pneumatological development.[5] Additionally, Moltmann’s prestigious academic career has included serious interest in the contribution of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.[6] In fact, Moltmann’s proposed “Messianic ecclesiology”[7] is robustly pneumatological, having common points of interest with current Pentecostal theologies addressing the Spirit and the Church. [Read more…]

Moltmann’s Historic PreMillennialism…

05/09/2014 by luke.geraty

A Younger Molt! Jürgen Moltmann (b. 1926) is “without a doubt one of the three or four most widely read and influential of twentieth-century- and early-twenty-first-century theologians” (Thiselton). I recently wrote a paper that ended up exploring a bit of his eschatological thinking, specifically his vision of premillennialism. What follows is a bit of that research…

In Moltmann we find many provocative statements about the importance of “millenarianism” that, at face value, cannot be considered distinctly premillennial. For example, Moltmann writes,

“… there is no affirmative community between the church and Israel without the messianic hope for the kingdom. And that then means that there is no adequate Christian eschatology without millenarianism. Eschatology is more than millenarianism, but millenarianism is its historical relevance. It is only the millenarian hope in Christian eschatology which unfolds an earthly and historical future for the church and Israel… Millenarianism looks towards future history, the history of the end…” (Moltmann, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology, 197)

What does Moltmann mean when he discusses “millenarianism”? Questions concerning Moltmann’s “millenarianism” are, in my estimation, based more on semantics than on theological differences in that Moltmann does not use traditional terms such as “premillennialism,” “postmillennialism,” or “amillennialism” consistently or in a way that most systematic theologians do. However, Moltmann clearly rejects “Historical Millenarianism” (Amillennialism) and accepts “Eschatological Millenarianism” (Premillennialism) in The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology.

Moltmann makes an important clarification when he writes that,

“… the resurrection from the dead necessarily leads into a reign of Christ before the universal raising of the dead for the Last Judgment. That is to say, it leads into a messianic kingdom in history before the end of the world, or into a transitional kingdom leading from this transitory world-time to the new world that is God’s. This hope is clearly evident in Paul [Phil. 3:10f].” (Moltmann, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology, 195)

Not all understand Moltmann as a clear premillennialist. Bauckham raises this issue when he states that “Moltmann fails to distinguish between the two types of futurist millenarianism: premillenarianism and postmillenarianism (or premillennialism and postmillennialism).” However, Moltmann provides clarification when he responds to Bauckham by writing, “I understand [the millennium] theologically. Christ’s kingdom of peace is evidently associated with hope for Israel’s future in the fulfilment of God’s promises to Israel in the kingdom of the Son of man (Daniel 7). But for Christians this kingdom of the Son of man is identical with Christ’s kingdom of peace at the end of time.” Moreover, Moltmann states, “Christian millenarianism has had a clearly detectible affinity to Israel. It is only here that the theological recognition of Israel’s enduring vocation, and the hope for Israel’s future, are really preserved.” This reads strikingly similar to the previously mentioned premillennial commitments to a future eschatological place for ethnic Israel and is connected to Moltmann’s agreement that “hand in hand with expectation of the overthrow of the Antichrist went the expectation of Israel’s redemption and the establishment of Christ’s thousand years’ empire.” One is hard pressed to argue that Moltmann does not argue for premillennial theology (Roger E. Olson states that in personal correspondence, Moltmann affirmed that he was a historic premillennialist).

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Logos Bible Software If you’d like to purchase the Jürgen Moltmann Collection (22 vols.) from Logos, go here. You can either make one payment or set up a payment plan, which is an incredible option for pastors! You could also call 1-800-875-6467 to talk to one of Logos’ friendly staff. In my experience, they are both knowledgeable and helpful. One of the awesome benefits of using Logos is their return policy. Logos has a 30-day money-back-guarantee return period. So what are you waiting for? Order your copy today and tell them ThinkTheology.org sent you! And if you contact us, we might be able to get you a discount!

The Molt on the Cross

04/18/2014 by luke.geraty

It’s Good Friday… and Sunday is coming.

I’ve long somewhat “struggled” with Good Friday because I’ve observed that many of our services tend to imply that we should pretend that the Resurrection hasn’t happened. And I get it. We’re trying to make much of the cross of Christ. After all, St. Paul indicated that all of our boasting should be in the cross (Gal. 6:14). Makes sense to me because “the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” Jesus has “set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14).

I sense this same tension in the Molt. He writes,

“In the light of the Easter events the community first looked forwards into the future. The one who appeared to them in the splendour of divine glory was their guarantee that the glory of God and his new creation were not distant, but near. In recognizing his ‘resurrection from the dead’, they also traced in themselves the ‘spirit of resurrection’, the ‘spirit which brings life’ (Rom. 8:11), and waited in the ‘power of the resurrection’ (Phil. 3:10) for the coming appearance of Christ in glory. They understood his resurrection as a preparatory and preliminary action of God in Jesus for the good of themselves and the world. God had answered the evil deed of men in crucifying Jesus in a glorious way by raising him from the dead (Acts 2:24). As the primitive Christian hymns show, his humiliation on the cross faded into the background behind the present experience of his exaltation to be Kyrios, to be the Lord who ushers in the end-time.” (The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology, 178–179)

What I like about what the Molt is saying here is that the “Easter event” is tied together with the cross and the Resurrection. He also sees this deeply connected to an eschatological hope (and realization!).

As you are reflecting on the cross today, do you also have a difficult time disconnecting from the fact that Jesus physically raised from the dead, ascended to heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and will soon return?

What say you?

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If you’d like to purchase the Jürgen Moltmann Collection (22 vols.) from Logos, go here. You can either make one payment or set up a payment plan, which is an incredible option for pastors! You could also call 1-800-875-6467 to talk to one of Logos’ friendly staff. In my experience, they are both knowledgeable and helpful. One of the awesome benefits of using Logos is their return policy. Logos has a 30-day money-back-guarantee return period. So what are you waiting for? Order your copy today and tell them ThinkTheology.org sent you! And if you contact us, we might be able to get you a discount!

The Molt on Joy in Nearness to God…

03/21/2014 by luke.geraty

"The Molt" I finally picked up a copy of Thiselton’s book on the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit: In Biblical Teaching, through the Centuries, and Today. Interestingly, Thiselton lists the Molt as one of the major theologians of this century. The more I read the Molt, the more I agree (though he can be quite difficult at times to comprehend!). What I find interesting is the development in his writings over the span of his life. Fascinating stuff because he seems to become more Christian as he continues (and also more conservative sounding!).

This week I was interested to read more of his thoughts on being a true theologian in Experiences in Theology: Ways and Forms of Christian Theology. He suggests that a true theologian has both suffered of God and delights in God. Sounds awfully Edwardsian (or Piperish?), which I really like!

The Molt’s first characteristic of a true theologian is related to basically living life and gaining helpful theological perspective from experiencing life’s pain, similar, in his mind, to Christ’s experience of the cross. The Molt points us to Luther’s famous statement that,

“By living, no—more—by dying and being damned to hell doth a man become a theologian, not by knowing, reading, or speculation.”

Luther of course wasn’t saying study or books wasn’t weren’t important. No, the Molt was simply saying that,

“… reading, reflection and the understanding of Scripture have to be accompanied by this personal wrestling with God, so that theology becomes not just a scholarly study which teaches, but also a wisdom which makes wise out of the experience of God. Experience comes first and then the theology; first the passion—then the action.”

Yes, the Molt is getting into existential theology, which has both positive and negative implications. And this “suffering” is only one aspect… the other that he talks about is delighting in God! This, of course, is where I see some Edwardsian prose:

“… we may say that the beauty of theology lies in its doxology, and delight in God is expressed through joy over existence in nearness to him. According to the New Testament, the gospel of Christ is filled with God’s joy, for that gospel is the message about the raising of the crucified Christ from death, God-forsakenness and hell, into the eternally living life of God and of ‘the world to come’. That is God’s counter-history to the world’s history of disaster. Easter joy is the doxological utterance of Christian belief in God.”

Easter joy… something I believe Christians should be aware of 365 days a year!

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On the Molt’s Crucicentric Oversimplification

03/07/2014 by luke.geraty

A Younger Molt! Years ago, when I first started reading the Molt, I started with his infamous The Crucified God. The following quote stood out:

“If it is true that the inner criterion of whether or not Christian theology is Christian lies in the crucified Christ, we come back to Luther’s lapidary statement: Crux probat omnia. In Christianity the cross is the test of everything which deserves to be called Christian. One may add that the cross alone, and nothing else, is its test, since the cross refutes everything, and excludes the syncretistic This is a hard saying. To many it sounds unattractive and unmodern, and to others rigid and orthodox. I will try to disappoint both.” (p.7)

At the time I had finished John Stott’s The Cross of Christ and was loving the emphasis on the cross. Truth be told, when I came into contact with the Reformers and the Puritans, I was overwhelmed with the glory of the cross. I slowly came to have a better understanding as to why Paul wrote, “far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14). The cross is central to Christianity. And I agree with David Bebbington that it’s one of the four hallmarks of Evangelicalism.

However… and yes, I need to provide a “however” here. I’m concerned that we have, at times, been guilty of ignoring the other side of the coin: Jesus not only died upon the cross but was raised from the dead! The cross of Christ must include the resurrection of Jesus. And yes, I have in mind a physical event found in history at which point Jesus the Messiah, fully God and fully man, was miraculously raised from the dead. I realize that the Molt spends time talking about the resurrection in chapter 5, so I don’t want to suggest that the Molt views Christianity as being entirely comprised of the cross with little or no attention to the resurrection. That would be a misrepresentation.

But I seem to read and hear a lot of statements in certain streams of Evangelicalism where there is much emphasis on Jesus’ death and very little emphasis on the resurrection. Of course, this is challenged around this time of the year because Easter is right around the corner. For my part, I think crucicentric thinking is an oversimplification of the Christian faith that must be connected to the resurrection of the Son of God! So while I have found much to think on from the Molt’s The Crucified God, I want to attach N.T. Wright’s The Resurrection of the Son of God to my interaction with and study of the Molt. Wright helpfully, in The Resurrection of the Son of God, ensures that the Christian faith is intricately connected to the powerful raising of Christ from death, victoriously defeating Satan, sin, sickness, and death.

Don’t get me wrong. I like how the Molt values and sees the cross as shaping the Christian faith. I love it. Yet I can’t stop talking at the cross. I need to keep talking about the resurrection too!

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