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Jürgen Moltmann

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born

April 08, 1926 in Hamburg, Germany

genre

Theology, Religion & Spirituality

influences

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth, Ernst Bloch, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich ...more

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Jürgen Moltmann is a German Reformed theologian. He is the 2000 recipient of the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

Moltmann's Theology of Hope is a theological perspective with an eschatological foundation and focuses on the hope that the resurrection brings. Through faith we are bound to Christ, and as such have the hope of the resurrected Christ ("Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3, NIV)), and knowledge of his return. For Moltmann, the hope of the Christian faith is hope in the resurrection of Christ crucified. Hope and faith depend on each other to remain true and substantial; a...more Jürgen Moltmann is a German Reformed theologian. He is the 2000 recipient of the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.

Moltmann's Theology of Hope is a theological perspective with an eschatological foundation and focuses on the hope that the resurrection brings. Through faith we are bound to Christ, and as such have the hope of the resurrected Christ ("Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3, NIV)), and knowledge of his return. For Moltmann, the hope of the Christian faith is hope in the resurrection of Christ crucified. Hope and faith depend on each other to remain true and substantial; and only with both may one find "not only a consolation in suffering, but also the protest of the divine promise against suffering."

However, because of this hope we hold, we may never exist harmoniously in a society such as ours which is based on sin. When following the Theology of Hope, a Christian should find hope in the future but also experience much discontentment with the way the world is now, corrupt and full of sin. Sin bases itself in hopelessness, which can take on two forms: presumption and despair. "Presumption is a premature, selfwilled anticipation of the fulfillment of what we hope for from God. Despair is the premature, arbitrary anticipation of the non-fulfillment of what we hope for from God."

In Moltmann's opinion, all should be seen from an eschatological perspective, looking toward the days when Christ will make all things new. "A proper theology would therefore have to be constructed in the light of its future goal. Eschatology should not be its end, but its beginning." This does not, as many fear, 'remove happiness from the present' by focusing all ones attention toward the hope for Christ's return. Moltmann addresses this concern as such: "Does this hope cheat man of the happiness of the present? How could it do so! For it is itself the happiness of the present." The importance of the current times is necessary for the Theology of Hope because it brings the future events to the here and now. This theological perspective of eschatology makes the hope of the future, the hope of today.

Hope strengthens faith and aids a believer into living a life of love, and directing them toward a new creation of all things. It creates in a believer a "passion for the possible" "For our knowledge and comprehension of reality, and our reflections on it, that means at least this: that in the medium of hope our theological concepts become not judgments which nail reality down to what it is, but anticipations which show reality its prospects and its future possibilities." This passion is one that is centered around the hope of the resurrected and the returning Christ, creating a change within a believer and drives the change that a believer seeks make on the world.

For Moltmann, creation and eschatology depend on one another. There exists an ongoing process of creation, continuing creation, alongside creation ex nihilo and the consummation of creation. The consummation of creation will consist of the eschatological transformation of this creation into the new creation. The apocalypse will include the purging of sin from our finite world so that a transformed humanity can participate in the new creation.(less)

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Books by Jürgen Moltmann

Average rating: 4.32 · 73 ratings · 7 reviews · 36 distinct works

	Way of Jesus Christ 4.14 avg rating — 29 ratings — published 1989 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Theology of Hope 4.10 avg rating — 105 ratings — published 1966 — 5 editions	My rating:
	The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology by Jürgen Moltmann, John Bowden (Translator), R.A. Wilson (Translator) 4.26 avg rating — 194 ratings — published 1973 — 7 editions	My rating:
	The Passion For Life: A Messianic Lifestyle 4.67 avg rating — 3 ratings	My rating:
	The Power of the Powerless 4.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	God in Creation 3.98 avg rating — 44 ratings — published 1984 — 7 editions	My rating:
	The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology by Jürgen Moltmann, Margaret Kohl (Translator) 4.16 avg rating — 31 ratings — published 1995 — 6 editions	My rating:
	On Human Dignity by Jürgen Moltmann, M. Douglas Meeks (Translator) 3.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1983 — 3 editions	My rating:
	The Future of Creation: Collected Essays 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1979 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Theology of Play 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1972	My rating:

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Quotes by Jürgen Moltmann

“Totally without hope one cannot live. To live without hope is to cease to live. Hell is hopelessness. It is no accident that above the entrance to Dante's hell is the inscription: "Leave behind all hope, you who enter here.”
― Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope

tags: hope , life

141 people liked it

“God weeps with us so that we may one day laugh with him.”
― Jürgen Moltmann

7 people liked it

“The motive that impels modern reason to know must be described as the desire to conquer and dominate. For the Greek philosophers and the Fathers of the church, knowing meant something different: it meant knowing in wonder. By knowing or perceiving one participates in the life of the other. Here knowing does not transform the counterpart into the property of the knower; the knower does not appropriate what he knows. On the contrary, he is transformed through sympathy, becoming a participant in what he perceives.”
― Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom

tags: church-fathers , knowledge

3 people liked it

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