Wolfhart Pannenberg

           This is the fourth in a series on Frederick Schleiermacher.             Schleiermacher will now have a much longer exploration of grace (86-169) as the experience of vital fellowship that brings moral transformation. The present sense of the Christian fellowship consists of the need humanity has for redemption. This awareness is the basis for his concept of Jesus as the Redeemer. Tillich will admit that much of his discussion of Jesus as the New Being is similar to what Schleiermacher says here, although he cautions that they are not identical presentations. [1] Schleiermacher begins with Christian consciousness and asks how it posits the redeemer. [2] He is trying to derive the contents of the Christian faith from the Christian consciousness. The Lutheran School of Erlangen sought to do something similar. Such an attempt is an illusion. The event on which Christianity has its...

Chapter 13: The Messianic Community and Individuals               Pannenberg begins with a discussion of the fellowship of individuals with Jesus Christ and the church as the fellowship of believers. The church aims its missionary message to the salvation of individuals. Jesus addressed his message of the imminent rule of God to individuals rather than the development of a political program. He will want to explore the relation between the fellowship of individuals with Jesus Christ and their gathering in the church. One, Pannenberg discusses the church as the fellowship of believers and the body of Christ. As the body of Christ, the image addresses the inseparable union of believers with Christ. We see this reality particularly in Word and Sacrament. The unity of the body is one we perceive only through faith. Two, he discusses the mediating of the fellowship of believers by the common confession. The confession of...