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Thinking with Theologians does pretty much what it says on the tin. In each course, we will take three weeks to grapple with some significant texts by notable Christian theologians, past and present, in the hope of expanding, deepening and challenging our understanding of what it might mean to talk about God. Each session will include a short presentation by the tutor, followed by a period of focused group discussion of a particular text or texts.
Sometimes the focus of the course will be on a particular figure or school of thought; sometimes it will be a particular theme or doctrine. Either way, the method will be the same: read carefully; reflect deeply; talk honestly – then see what happens.
In this course we focus on the work of the influential and well-loved German theologian Jurgen Moltmann, who died last year. Moltmann's breakthrough book, Theology of Hope, proved to be immensely influential, and remains a challenging and lively read today. Equally, his subsequent books, like The Crucified God and The Coming of God, are rich, thoughtful texts that are still widely read and engaged with by contemporary theologians – both Catholic and Protestant. We will explore a range of his key ideas, especially: hope; the cross; suffering; Trinity.
To do this we will be working through his 1980 book The Trinity and the Kingdom of God. In this book, Moltmann restates some of what he put forward in his earlier books Theology of Hope and The Crucified God - especially the eschatological character of Christian life and thought, and the 'passion' of God in human history. He also lays the ground for the Trinitarian character of his later treatments of Christology and pneumatology.
Participants are advised to buy their own copy if possible (second hand copies are readily available online), but should get in contact with the course tutor if this is not possible. There are also a number of copies available via the Heythrop Library.
To begin, we will look at Moltmann’s methodological comments in the Preface, which express his dissatisfaction with how theology is often presented, or undertaken. Then, we look at the important claims in makes in the first two chapters, which aim to unsettle some fundamental assumptions that have frequently been made in Christian theology concerning the nature of God.
Questions for reflection:
1. In the first section, Moltmann makes a claim that has enormous implications: that if the relationship between humanity and God is to be conceived as a relationship of covenant and love (as presented throughout Scripture), then it must mean that – in some mysterious sense – God experiences humanity. Then, he writes: ‘The more he [the believer] understands God’s experience, the more deeply the mystery of God’s passion is revealed to him.’ (p. 4). What do you make of this idea? Does this help to develop the idea that God suffers not just for us, but with us, and ‘from us’?
2. In the section ‘On the way to the Triune God’, Moltmann contrasts the idea of the Triune God with the idea of God as ‘supreme substance’ and ‘absolute subject’. How have the ideas of substance and subject influenced your own conception of God, do you think?
3. In ‘God’s “apathy” or his passion?’ (p. 24), Moltmann includes a long quotation from Origen, which talks about a suffering of love that precedes and motivates the incarnation. What do you make of this idea? Do you think that the ‘apathetic axiom’ is as problematic as Moltmann takes it to be?
In this chapter, Moltmann reiterates some of the ideas he developed in The Crucified God, especially his challenge to the ‘apathetic axiom’ (the idea that God, being perfect and changeless, cannot suffer). After discussing Jewish theology of the ‘Shekinah’, Anglican suffering-God theology, and Berdyaev, Moltmann turns to more abstract, systematic considerations: the question of God’s freedom, revelation, and God’s nature as love.
Questions for reflection:
1. In ‘God’s “apathy” or his passion?’ (p. 24), Moltmann includes a long quotation from Origen, which talks about a suffering of love that precedes and motivates the incarnation. What do you make of this idea? Do you think that the ‘apathetic axiom’ is as problematic as Moltmann takes it to be?
2. In section 6, Moltmann argues that ‘the theodicy question’ is the only way to understand the universal significance of the cross (p. 47, 52). What do you think he means by this? Does this conflict with your own understanding of the cross?
3. The discussions in sections 7 and 8 lead to Moltmann’s eventual claim that ‘the deliverance or redemption of the world is bound up with the self-deliverance of God from his sufferings [. . .] the theology of God’s passion leads to the idea of God’s self-subjection to suffering. It therefore also has to arrive at the idea of God’s eschatological self-deliverance.’ (p. 60). What do you take this to mean?
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Stuart is the Theology Lead at LJC. He graduated with a degree in Literature and Theology from the University of Hull in 2000. From 2003-9 he studied Philosophical Theology part-time at the University of Nottingham, whilst continuing to work in the third sector with vulnerably-housed or homeless people, and young asylum seekers (as well as pulling pints in a pub). He was Lecturer at York St John University for almost a decade, before moving to London Jesuit Centre in 2021. He now lives in South East London, and spends as much time as he can in the woods.
