Theology of hope

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Theology of Hope is the best-known work of the Protestant theologian Jürgen Moltmann and established its international reputation. It was published in 1964 and was inspired by Ernst Bloch's The Principle of Hope .

In it, Moltmann contrasts Ernst Bloch's “World Without God” with the “God of Hope” from Romans .

He assumes three key terms:

  1. the concept of divine promise
  2. the concept of " raising the crucified Christ"
  3. an understanding of history as a "mission of the kingdom of God ".

For Moltmann, the promise is the prerequisite for faith, which is not created by man, but proceeds from God and which only makes possible “not doubting what one does not see” (Hebrews 11: 1).

The resurrection of Christ is important to him only in terms of a general eschatology . But he distinguishes this from a general belief in progress, because it is that of the crucified Christ and therefore brings the persecuted and oppressed the hope that there is a new future for them.

He does not see the kingdom of God only in an extraterrestrial world, but sees it as the task of Christians to work towards the kingdom of God already in historical reality.

Together with Wolfhart Pannenberg, Moltmann established an eschatological orientation in Protestant theology that had its Catholic equivalent in Johann Baptist Metz 's political theology .

Karl Barth , Karl Rahner and Hans Urs von Balthasar were critical of this position, as they more strongly adhered to the principle of hope in the hereafter.

The book has been translated into numerous languages, including a. into Dutch, English, Italian, Japanese, French, Spanish and Croatian. 14 editions of the German edition were published by 2005.

Bibliographical information

Jürgen Moltmann: Theology of Hope. Investigations into the justification and consequences of a Christian eschatology . Gütersloh 1997 ISBN 3579051555 ISBN 978-3579052243

literature

  • Wolf-Dieter Marsch (ed.): Discussion on the "Theology of Hope" . Chr. Kaiser Verlag, Munich 1967.
  • Karl Rahner: On the theology of hope . In: Karl Rahner: Writings on theology . Vol. 8. Benziger, Einsiedeln 1967, pp. 561-579.
  • Jürgen Moltmann: Theology of Hope . In: Johannes B. Bauer (ed.): Drafts of theology . Styria, Graz 1985, pp. 235-257.
  • Jürgen Moltmann, Carmen Rivuzumwami, Thomas Schlag (ed.): Hope in God - future of life. 40 years of “Theology of. Hope " Gütersloh 2005.
  • Markus Dröge : Theology of Hope . In: Christian Danz (Ed.): Canon of theology. 45 key texts in portrait . Darmstadt, 3rd edition 2012, pp. 302–310

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