Wolfhart Pannenberg

Jürgen Moltmann,  The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God  (Harper & Row: San Francisco, 1980, 1981).             Theologian Jürgen Moltmann, in his autobiography  In a Broad Place,  has a reference to Pannenberg saying that Moltmann began a new regard for the doctrine of the Trinity. He viewed this as generous, saying that the two of them together have brought renewed interest and focus on the Trinity. This little reflection on  The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God  (Harper & Row: San Francisco, 1980, 1981) is an effort to explore the Trinity with Moltmann, but with special attention to the written dialogue we find between these two fine theologians.  On a brief personal note, Pannenberg has been my teacher since the mid-1970s. I have the privilege of being in a reading group that is slowly working through his  Systematic Theology.  One of the many ...

I would like to share a few reflections on Jürgen Moltmann, God in Creation (1985), http://www.scribd.com/doc/30392808/Moltmann-Juergen-God-in-Creation#scribd These reflections arise out of two reading groups in which I have the pleasure of participating. One is a second reading of Barth’s Church Dogmatics and the other is “I have forgotten how many” reading of Pannenberg’s Systematic Theology. In both groups, we are reading about the doctrine of creation. Of course, Pannenberg refers to this text in a generally positive way, a fact that encourages me to read the text. My approach will be to make a few comments on what is in each chapter. I will make comments along the way. In Chapter 1, Moltmann explores God in creation. He offers some guidelines for an ecological view of creation. First, knowledge of nature as the creation of God is participating knowledge. This simply means that science tends to break down its study to the smallest particles to its smallest elements, while ...

            My interest in Wolfhart Pannenberg and Jürgen Moltmann goes back to the mid-1970s. They were the theologians of hope, which was attractive to me. To focus on Moltmann for a moment, his Theology of Hope, Crucified God, Church and the Power of the Spirit, The Trinity and the Kingdom of God have been particularly helpful. However, his political theology was never something to which I could find agreement. Further, the broader range of the writings of Pannenberg, especially in philosophy and psychology, bring theology into conversations that I think are important. As I have gone through Systematic Theology by Pannenberg again, due to a book-reading group, I am looking at the connection between these two theologians. What I have noticed is that they track so closely in their theology, especially with their focus on eschatology, Christology, and the Trinity. Of course, there are some differences, but they are very close ...

Pannenberg, in Chapter 8 of his Systematic Theology, discusses the dignity and misery of humanity. This will be his way of re-thinking another doctrine of Christianity. For him, Christianity will need to re-think the doctrine of original sin. He wrote What is Man? (1962), brief book representing his first explorations into theological anthropology. He wrote Anthropology in a Theological Perspective (1985) as his full reflections on the topic. At various points in this chapter, he will summarize his thoughts in these two works. In both books, his focus is on the openness of humanity to its world. Such openness involves the growth of identity throughout the course of life. The idea that our identity is one we discover as we engage the world is a hint that our openness relates us to God. Such openness leads him to reflect upon the dignity of humanity in this light. Of course, as human beings close themselves from this openness, it leads him to reflect upon the misery of humanity. It...