Amidst all the major world events vying for attention recently, I’m not surprised that I barely heard a whisper about the passing of Jürgen Moltmann. His death took place just as preparations for the 80th anniversary of D-Day were in full flow – and that was somehow appropriate. Moltmann’s life and theology journey were profoundly shaped by his experience in WWII. He came to faith in a POW camp in Scotland. Raised in the Hitler Youth, drafted into the German airforce at 16, and caught in a horrific firestorm of British bombing, he was found floating in a lake, with all his friends dead around him – and 40,000 others.
For the first time, he cried to God, ‘Where are you’? but got no immediate answer. It took time. Eventually, ‘in the dark pit of my soul, Jesus sought me and found me’. Moltmann’s life was filled with questions – unanswerable questions. He returned to a Germany in ruins at 22 to study theology and try to rebuild a normal life.
Moltmann was a towering figure in modern theology, where German academic theology was the dominant force until WWII. He’s the bridge between the old and new, pre and post-war thought, German and American, continental and British, conservative and liberal. No modern theology is complete without reference to Jürgen Moltmann!
His first major work, ‘Theology of Hope’, shattered the traditional approach of systematic theology and brought eschatology into the mainstream. His ‘Crucified God’ is unmatched in thought provoking depth. He was fearless in asking difficult questions, wrestling with answers openly, intellectually, biblically and scientifically, courageously willing to speculate and tread new ground. He was far ahead of time in tackling contemporary issues. He’s the grandfather of environmental theology, writing ‘The Future of Creation’ in 1977; he was always the first to grapple with issues in feminist theology, liberation theology, political and scientific theology. He wrote over 40 major works, and is considered to be ‘the most widely read Christian theologian of the last 80 years’.1 He continued writing almost up to his death at age 98!
I was bowled over when I first read Moltmann. I disagreed with so much, yet he was compelling, fascinating, convincing… and he won me over. I chose Moltmann as one of my three ‘representational voices’ for my PhD. And he would certainly have welcomed my disagreements in the quest for deeper understanding.
1 World Council of Churches. Miroslav Volf added that his work was ‘existential and academic, pastoral and political, innovative and traditional, readable and demanding, contextual and universal’.
