[PT 6.2 (2005) 215-234]
Political Theology (print) ISSN 1462-317X Political Theology (online) ISSN 1473-1719
JÜRGEN MOLTMANN’S PUBLIC THEOLOGY Scott R. Paeth Assistant Professor of Religious Studies DePaul University, Chicago, IL 60641 USA spaeth@depaul.edu
ABSTRACT Jürgen Moltmann’s theology has always been characterized by its concern with questions of political and social life. His political hermeneutic is based upon a dialectical relationship between the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ in a dialogue with the philosophy and social theory of Ernst Bloch and the Frankfurt School. Theologians such as John Milbank and Arne Rasmusson have criticized Moltmann’s approach as leading to a pagan captivity of Christian theology, and suggest instead the creation of a Christian social theory independent of secular categories. Yet, a proper understanding of Moltmann’s conception of the “Exodus Church,” coupled with a theory of role of civil society in modern life, demonstrates that Moltmann’s theology more authentically represents Christian aspirations with regard to society than the approach of his critics.
1. Introduction Jürgen Moltmann often speaks of his theology as being experimental, open to adjustment and revision.1 Theology, he states, is “an adventure of ideas. It is an open, inviting path” on which, he says, “the road emerged only as I walked it.”2 Beginning with his attempts in Theology of Hope to recover the eschatological basis of Christian theology, as well as his extension of those ideas in The Crucified God, Moltmann has attempted to offer a way of doing theology that was both open to that which is culturally new and at the same time rooted in scripture and tradition. He has certainly not lacked critics. Yet he has maintained throughout the evolution of his thought both a commitment to his 1. This article has been adapted from my dissertation “From the Church to the World: Public Theology and Civil Society in Dialogue with the Theology of Jürgen Moltmann” (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Theological Seminary, 2004). 2. Jürgen Moltmann, Experiences in Theology (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2000), xv. Italics in original. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2005, Unit 6, The Village, 101 Amies Street, London SW11 2JW.