I used to joke that Jürgen Moltmann was in every one of my classes, which was strange because he wasn't registered for any of them. OK, not a very funny joke, but it articulates something of the impact that he has had on my students. As a teacher, I have to pay attention to any thinker that is enthusiastically received by my students.
Moltmann, who is German, became a Christian in the aftermath of World War II. At the end of the war he was in a series of prisoner of war camps. It was in these camps that he was given a Bible and experienced the love and care of the local Christians. He eventually went back to Germany and studied theology.
Thus, Moltmann's theology was nurtured in the ashen soil of the Holocaust. Because of this, his theology takes suffering very seriously. Love and suffering are intertwined in Moltmann's thinking about humanity and God. A central tenet in his theology is that God meets us in the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is Jesus' solidarity with human suffering that shows forth and reveals the ever pursuing love of the triune God who created all things and persons.
I think that one of the reasons that students respond so passionately to his theology is that he connects theory to the realities of life. There is an honest wrestling in his work that responds compassionately and critically to a Christianity steeped in a century of war and political upheaval. At the beginning of the 21st century, his theology feels relevant and deeply hopeful. Moltmann's theology is never naive but is, instead, infused with the faith that God will always meet us in our most broken places and experiences.
The following is a lecture that Moltmann delivered at Yale Divinity School in 2004: "Control is Good, but Trust is Better." The video has the added benefit of an introduction by Serene Jones, another intriguing theologian that you should read. (See her book, Trauma & Grace):
No comments:
Post a Comment