I’m at a conference all about theologian Jurgen Moltmann and i am going to be recording some notes/thoughts here. Here are some notes about his various books from an introductory session:
- The Theology of Hope: We are, “Pierced to the soul by this hope”.
- The Crucified God: What does the cross mean for God? Those who are Godless kill innocence and those innocent are forsaken by God. On the cross godlessness and God Forsakenness come together. God suffers. God is both the one who suffers and the one who hears the suffering and doesn’t respond – God is now in every place. “no one can love the cross, its awful”. The cross is the conflict of all things. The resurrection is the answer to all of them. “The resurrection is a cosmic money move” (teacher). The cross is the litmus test for everything we believe.
- Church in the Power of the Spirit: (his most practical book). We are the people who get together and ACTIVELY wait for the coming of Jesus. Before God, Before others, Before the future. What will the coming new creation say about the work we are doing. Our job is to glorify God BY (and only by) working towards the redemption and reconciliation of all creation. The question isn’t “what is church” but “where is it”, where do we see the KOG appearing in creation? So we don’t protect, we look. We’re just the people who point out the hope.
- The Trinity and the Kingdom: The New Testament talks about God by proclaiming the narrative of the relationship between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. There is a fellowship of God that has been opened to the world. Jesus and the father are “one” not “one in the same”. A dynamic fellowship of relational love. In the dance there is mutual submission.
- God in Creation: Tension between immanence and transcendence. God is present now and yet God is not fully present yet. The promise to end all promises is that God will be all in all. God is here, but God will be here far more at the new beginning. Middle ground between God is everything (pantheism) and God is distant (theism) is God is in everything. We are not the crown of God’s creation – Sabbath is. The God that rests is not a God who dominates but a God who feels his creation. We Sabbath in eschatological hope. We rest in God and God rest in us. The fall does not remove the imprint of God on creation.
- The way of Jesus Christ: Jesus is still on the way somewhere. Jesus has not arrived. Our Christology has to be a Christology on the way. The future is truly open. It is a question mark. We are trusting in the promise.
- The spirit of life: Holistic pneumetology. Every experience of life we have that is joyful is done so by the power of the Spirit of Life. God is bound to creation in love. We are beloved. “the whole misery of men and women is the love of God that is miscarried” JM. The spirit with us in the down payment of what is coming. God is in a sense homeless, in the new creation God finds permanent home.