Life after death?

Resurrected to Eternal Life: On Dying and Rising ~ by Jürgen Moltmann, translated by Ellen Yutzy Glebe, 2021, theology, 88 pages

Drawing on themes from his oeuvre's entire arc, Resurrected to Eternal Life testifies to the inner unity of his theology:  the cross, the Spirit, the kingdom, the end, and the hope that makes the end present here and now.  Seasoned readers of Moltmann will find in these pages a capstone of a lifetime of theological exploration, while those new to his thinking will find a concise entry point into his voluminous work.

I'm curious whether Moltmann thinks there is life after death.  He begins in the Foreword by referring to his 1964 book Theology of Hope, which I've read.  I blogged about this book last year (click on the title link), and I finally got around to reading it this week.

Two book beginnings ~ (1) in a jail cell, and (2) with a question

I usually have both fiction and nonfiction books going at the same time.  I'm re-reading Anna Quindlen's novel One True Thing (1994).  I've recommended it many times, but had forgotten the book's beginning lines:

"Jail is not as bad as you might imagine.  When I say jail, I don't mean prison.  Prison is the kind of place you see in old movies or public television documentaries, those enormous gray places with guard towers at each corner and curly strips of razor wire going round and round like a loop-the-loop atop the high fence."

A mother.  A daughter.  A shattering choice.  Ellen Gulden is enjoying her career as a successful magazine writer in New York City when she learns that her mother, Kate, is dying of cancer.  Ellen’s father insists that she quit her job and return home to become a caregiver.  A high-powered career woman, Ellen has never felt she had much in common with her mother, a homemaker and the heart of their family.  Yet as Ellen begins to spend time with Kate, she discovers many surprising truths, not only about herself, but also about the woman she thought she knew so well.  When Ellen is accused of the mercy killing of her mother, she must not only defend her own life but make a difficult choice — either accept responsibility for an act she did not commit or divulge the name of the person she believes committed a painful act of love.

I'm re-reading Jürgen Moltmann's Experiences of God (1979, English edition, 1980), that I thought I had misplaced.  When I moved my bed away from the wall, I found it had slid down the wall to the floor.  I first read this book in 1988, thirty-three years ago.  Here's the beginning:

"Why am I a Christian?  What a curious question!  Who is interrogating me like this?  Do I have to put my name on my answer?  The question sounds inquisitive.  Somebody wants to know the reasons that led some-body else to a particular conviction.  It sounds impertinent too — as if the other person is bound to justify his decision to believe."

Enduring meditations on hope, anxiety, and mystical experience, together with the author's personal confession of faith.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

Sunday Salon ~ books, labyrinths, family, purricane

BOOKS

Two weeks ago, Jürgen Moltmann wrote these words for a book about his theology by Stephen D. Morrison:

I have endeavored to follow up scholarly theological books with shorter, generally accessible works.  I have kept myself accountable to the injunction:  “That which cannot be said simply is perhaps not worth saying at all.”  As such, I followed up Theology of Hope (1967) with the popular-level work, In the End — The Beginning (2004); my Christology, The Way of Jesus Christ (1990), with Jesus Christ for Today’s World (1994); and The Spirit of Life (1992) with The Source of Life (1997).

I have five of these six books, but somehow I missed In the End — The Beginning.  I'll have to remedy that oversight!  I hadn't realized these (smaller) books were more accessible versions of his theological tomes, but the "easier" ones are definitely shorter:

(342 pages) Theology of Hope

In the End — The Beginning (192 pages)

(388 pages) The Way of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ for Today’s World (152 pages)

(358 pages) The Spirit of Life

The Source of Life (148 pages)

Now I guess I'd better read (or re-read) all six books as I compare their contents.  I've had these since the 1990s, except Theology of Hope, which I bought in 1987.  That one is so old, the pages are falling out, so I got a later edition in 2012.  I can't throw away the old one yet, though, because of all my marginalia and underlining in it.

LABYRINTHS

Donna and I walked the labyrinth at the Mercy Center with Kevin on Thursday.  Click to enlarge the photo to see both of them meditating near the tree in the center.

Wanting to share labyrinth photos with a couple of friends, I went looking through my blog posts ... and couldn't find what I wanted.  Ha!  It's because I posted it on another of my blogs:  Book Buddies.  Here's the photo I was thinking about, one of Mary and Donna in the center of a smaller labyrinth at a church in Ooltewah.

Here's a labyrinth that Donna and I walked in Hixson, six years ago, when she took this photo of me.  There's a similarity among these outdoor labyrinths, but they are also different:  one is outlined with stones, one with bricks, and one with grass between wood-chip paths.

FAMILY

My youngest granddaughter has been pictured with her best friends in CityScope Magazine after their graduation from high school.  She is now a college freshman.

PURRICANE

Let's end with a gentle "cat-egory 3 purricane," hoping to bring a smile in a week of devastating weather in our world.

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Fullness of life

The Living God and the Fullness of Life ~ by Jürgen Moltmann, 2015

Modern humanity has accepted a truncated, impoverished definition of life.  Focusing solely on material realities, we have forgotten that joy, purpose, and meaning come from a life that is both immersed in the temporal and alive to the transcendent.  We have, in other words, ceased to live in God.  Moltmann shows us what that life of joy and purpose looks like.  Describing how we came to live in a world devoid of the ultimate, he charts a way back to an intimate connection with the biblical God.  He counsels that we adopt a "theology of life," an orientation that sees God at work in both the mundane and the extraordinary and that pushes us to work for a world that fully reflects the life of its Creator.  Moltmann offers a telling critique of the shallow values of consumerist society and provides a compelling rationale for why spiritual sensibilities and encounter with God must lie at the heart of any life that seeks to be authentically human.

I'm slowly getting back into the study of theology.  So far I've only managed to read the Preface (3 pages) and the Introduction (20 pages) of this book, but it's a start.  This book contributes to the theology of life that Moltmann began with

The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, 1992
and
The Source of Life: The Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life, 1997

Jürgen Moltmann ~ theology of hope

Although I haven't finished any of Jürgen Moltmann's books yet in 2017, I've been thinking about HOPE.  For one thing, I chose it for my word of the year, the first time I've ever done such a thing.

• Hope ~ my word for 2017
• Caturday Hope
• Hopeful beginning

And now the picture I've shared above is on my desktop for (at least) this week.  I found it in something posted online about the Women's Marches all across the nation on January 21st, the day after the inauguration.  What are your hopes for this year?

Study notes

The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God ~ by Jürgen Moltmann, 1981

This book provides the long-needed grounding for both liberation and process theologies and a view of both God and the church that emphasizes community based on freedom rather than authority.  People arrive at their own truth in their free and loving inclination towards one another, so Moltmann is inviting us to a "social" understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity.

We used this book in Walt Lowe's class at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in the spring of 1986.  I have notes in the margins and underlined passages through about half the book, which means I never finished reading the whole thing.  Obviously, I don't remember specifics from a class I took 31 years ago, but I learned enough about Moltmann's thinking that I later chose him as the theologian to emulate in my preaching class.  Here are some of the things I underlined:

"The world of growing interdependencies can no longer be understood in terms of 'my private world'." (p. 19).

"In this chapter we are trying to develop a doctrine of theopathy" (p. 25).  Theopathy = religious emotion excited by the contemplation of God.

"The living God is the loving God" (p. 38).

"Awareness means knowing-with, feeling-with and suffering-with.  It is only through pain that living things arrive at awareness of one another and of themselves" (p. 39).

"Misery is the lot of anyone who sins against God.  This misery is already inhyerent in the sin itself.  That is why the sinner is not really a wrongdoer who has to be punished in addition.  He is someone pitiable, and we must have compassion on him" (p. 50).

"True freedom is not 'the torment of choice,' with its doubts and threats; it is simple, undivided joy in the good" (p. 55).

"The triune God reveals himself as love in the fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  His freedom therefore lies in the friendship which he offers men and women, and through which he makes them his friends.  His freedom is his vulnerable love, his openness..." (p. 56).

"If God is love he is at once the lover, the beloved and the love itself" (p. 57).

"His [Jesus's] kingdom is the kingdom of 'compassion'" (p. 70).

"God is silent.  This is the experience of hell and judgment" (p. 77).

"Finally, it is important to notice that it is only here on the cross that, for the first and only time in his life, the Son addresses God, not as Father but as God (Hebrew Eloheni, Aramaic Eloi)" (p. 80).

Just thinking myself back into Moltmann's way of thinking.

Moltmann's major books

Moltmann's major works began with his trilogy (ET = English Translation):

• Theology of Hope (1964; ET 1967)
• The Crucified God (1972; ET 1974)
• The Church in the Power of the Spirit (1975; ET 1977)

He wrote in the Preface to The Trinity and the Kingdom (1980; ET 1981):

"What I should like to do now is to present a series of systematic contributions to theology, differing from my earlier books in a number of ways.  Here I should like to consider the context and correlations of important concepts and doctrines of Christian theology in a particular systematic sequence" (p. xi).

Moltmann wants to widen the discussion, saying we must dialogue with men and women of the past and with people beyond our own little group:

"What we call 'tradition' is not a treasury of dead truths, which are simply at our disposal.  It is the necessary and vitally continuing theological conversation with men and women of the past, across the ages, in the direction of our common future. ... We can no longer limit ourselves merely to discussions with our own tradition without being quite simply 'limited.'  As far as is humanly possible, we must take account of the other Christian traditions, and offer our own tradition as a contribution to the wider ecumenical community" (p. xii).

We have a common future, and I want to reach beyond any one religion so that we may embrace that future together.  Moltmann is ahead of me.  Quoting from the same book's preface, again:

"I have been particularly concerned to bring Judaism and the testimonies of the biblical Jewish faith into the discussion with the biblical Christian faith" (p. xv).

For now, let me simply list his seven systematic contributions to theology:

• The Trinity and the Kingdom of God (1980; ET 1981)
• God in Creation (1985; ET 1985)
• The Way of Jesus Christ (1989; ET 1990)
• The Spirit of Life (1991; ET 1992)
• The Coming of God (1995; ET 1996)
• Experiences in Theology (2000; ET 2000)
• Ethics of Hope (2010; ET 2012)

Eight of the ten books itemized above are represented in Jürgen Moltmann: Collected Readings (2014) edited by Margaret Kohl, who translated many of Moltmann's volumes.  I plan to read chapters from that book as I begin each volume.  Based on the Moltmanniac's recommendation, however, I'll start my study with Moltmann's latest book.

His most recent work, The Living God and the Fullness of Life, is an excellent place to start even if you have no background in theological thinking.

Completing the work of three degrees in theology means I'm not a beginner, but it seems like a quick overview for me.  Then I'll dig into his trilogy, followed by his systematic contributions to theology.  When I do all that, then I'll decide whether this is the year I want to read or re-read all his other books I've collected.

Sunday Salon ~ hopeful beginning

The new year begins, so it's time to start my independent study of Jürgen Moltmann's writings.  I'll post reports in my Mondays with Moltmann posts.  I hope I manage to do that every week.  I've already started reading his autobiography.

Books in progress:

• A Broad Place: An Autobiography ~ by  Jürgen Moltmann, 2007
• The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived ~ by Lee Carroll and Jan Tober, 1999

Next up:

• Jürgen Moltmann: Collected Readings ~ ed. by Margaret Kohl, 2014

Bloggers gather in the Sunday Salon — at separate computers in different time zones — to talk about our lives and our reading.

Hope ~ my word for 2017

"Today in all dimensions of life we are searching for a future in which we can really hope."





The Future of Hope (essays edited by Walter H. Capps; Moltmann's is from his 1969 book Religion, Revolution, and the Future), 1970

That quote is the first sentence of Jürgen Moltmann's article "Religion, Revolution, and the Future" (p. 102).  "The theme of hope and its relation to the future is deeply altering the thinking of people throughout the world."  That's from the back cover, which also says this book is "an excellent introduction to the men and the issues of the hope movement."  I bought this book when it was new in 1970 and underlined passages all through it, but I'll probably read it again this year as I begin a self-directed study I'm calling Mondays with Moltmann.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Mondays with Moltmann

In 2017, I plan to read through my books by and about Jürgen Moltmann.  Maybe I'll even manage to finish all of them, but studying as I go means it's a lot slower than reading a novel.  I first learned about Jürgen Moltmann in a class by Walt Lowe at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, where we used Moltmann's book The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God (1981).  I have these books by Moltmann, arranged chronologically.

1.  Two Studies in the Theology of Bonhoeffer (first part by Jürgen Moltmann, second part by Jürgen Weissbach), 1967
2.  Theology of Hope: On the Ground and the Implications of a Christian Eschatology, 1967
3.  The Future of Hope (essays edited by Walter H. Capps; Moltmann's is from his 1969 book Religion, Revolution, and the Future), 1970
4.  The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology, 1974
5.  The Experiment Hope, 1975
6.  The Church in the Power of the Spirit: A Contribution to Messianic Ecclesiology, 1977
7.  The Open Church: Invitation to a Messianic Lifestyle, 1978
8.  Hope for the Church: Moltmann in Dialogue with Practical Theology, 1979
9.  Meditations on the Passion: Two Meditations on Mark 8:31-38 (with Johann-Baptist Metz), 1979
10.  Experiences of God, 1980
11.  The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God, 1981
12.  The Power of the Powerless: The Word of Liberation for Today, 1983
13.  Humanity in God (with Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel), 1983
14.  On Human Dignity: Political Theology and Ethics, 1984
15.  God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God, 1985
16.  Love: The Foundation of Hope: The Theology of Jürgen Moltmann and Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, 1988
17.  Theology Today: Two Contributions toward Making Theology Present, 1988
18.  The Way of Jesus Christ: Christology in Messianic Dimensions, 1990
19.  Roundtable: Conversations with European Theologians (interviews edited by Michael Bauman), 1990
20.  History and the Triune God: Contributions to Trinitarian Theology, 1991
21.  God — His and Hers (with Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel), 1991
22.  The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, 1992
23.  Jesus Christ for Today's World, 1994
24.  Faith and the Future: Essays on Theology, Solidarity, and Modernity (with Johann-Baptist Metz), 1995
25.  The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology, 1996
26.  The Source of Life: The Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life, 1997
27.  A Passion for God's Reign: Theology, Christian Learning, and the Christian Self, 1998
28.  Experiences in Theology: Ways and Forms of Christian Theology, 2000
29.  A Broad Place: An Autobiography, 2007
30.  Sun of Righteousness, Arise! : God's Future for Humanity and the Earth, 2009
31.  Ethics of Hope, 2012
32.  Jürgen Moltmann: Collected Readings, 2014
33.  The Living God and the Fullness of Life, 2015

Notice that some were written together with his wife, Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, who died June 7, 2016.  I also have two other books by her that I plan to read.  She was a guest lecturer in one of my seminary classes, and I was impressed by her.  Later, I'll list books in my collection that others have written about Jürgen Moltmann and his theology.

In the meantime, I've started reading Moltmann's autobiography to get a feel for what was going on as his theology developed.

Mondays with Moltmann ~ the series
1-2-17  Moltmann's major books
1-9-17  Study notes
1-16-17  Jürgen Moltmann ~ theology of hope
1-23-17  Fullness of life

Theology and Joy: Jürgen Moltmann and Miroslav Volf

On June 27, 2014, Miroslav Volf engaged Jürgen Moltmann on some of the most fundamental questions of Moltmann's work.

• Where does joy come from?
• Whence hope?
• Who is God?

If the video quits working, view it on YouTube.

BTT (#43) ~ time

Elisabeth and Jurgen

Today's Booking Through Thursday from Deb is short and sweet:

"If you had all the time in the world, what would you read?"

The first thing that comes to mind, as I sit amid books and books and books that I'm sorting out before moving, is the 31 books by and about Jurgen Moltmann that I have.  I'd finally get around to reading what he had been writing for decades, studying and comparing his early thoughts and his later understandings.  On the day I left seminary, I went to the bookstore and bought another of his books, even though I had already completed everything required to graduate with my MDiv (Master of Divinity).  Something about what this theologian said really spoke to me, though I don't agree with everything he's ever written.  Far from it.  I'd just like to know him better.  And his wife, Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel.  She is also an inspiring theologian, and I especially like a book they wrote together ~ God: His and Hers (1991).  Here's a list of books by Jurgen Moltmann in English.  I own most of them, plus books others have written about his theology.