Jurgen Moltmann Session #1
- His life:
- 3 years as POW in England and Scotland. Born 1926 Harmburg Germany, secular family of school masters. Fully modern. Wanted to study mathematics and physics. Drafted into the German army. Was in the “Firestorm” of Hamburg. Survived a bomb attack: asked “where is God?” and “why am I alive?”. When leaving camp saw a “blooming cherry tree” the sign of life almost put him on his knees. The Scottish families were kind to them, he began to feel forgiveness without confession. An army chaplain distributed Bibles. Moltmann read it, Spalm 39. And the cry of Jesus on the cross is where Moltmann found the presence of Jesus in his life. Gave up math/physics, pursued theology.
- 1946 started to study theology. Started with Neihbur. Studied theology at Gurtingham. Pursued a dissertation to pursue a girl, now wife. Pastor in a rural congregation, 5 year. Learned to preach from life experience to life experience. Taught in a confessing church seminary. Felt a disconnect between being a professor and engaging in real life. Became a professor at Trubingham. 67 & 68 taught at Duke. Saw some of the worst of southern racism.
- 1967. Theology of Hope published in US, featured in NYT displacing “God is dead”. Was in a “theology of hope” conference interrupted by MLK shooting. 100s of Duke students sat in mourning for several days.
- Do good, love beauty, follow your instincts – secular humanism that Moltmann grew up with which collapses in the face of war. They had no words for feelings of loss, guilt, forsakenness. When a theological idea comes to him he thinks “what would the people make of it?” meaning his old congregation. Professional theologians need to hear the peoples questions AND there answers.
- Liberation theology in Latin America. 1990 Invited to lecture in Buennes Airies – ended up spending 6 weeks in South America. Go tired of “conference theology” started to teach in Nicaruaga.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, September 10th, 2009 at 8:12 am and is filed under Uncategorized.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.