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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?
In some ways, this is the real starting point of the book, because this is the point where Moltmann begins to show what it actually means to develop a doctrine of the Trinity out of ‘the history of Jesus the Son’ (p. 19), and why it is that, a she wrote in The Crucified God, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus can only be fully understood when understood in Trinitarian, not just monotheistic, terms.
1. In the section on Jesus’ baptism and call (pp. 65-71) Moltmann explores the connection between the preaching of the kingdom, and the revelation of God, by Jesus, as Father. ‘God is the Father, not because he is Lord over everything, but because as the Father of Jesus the Son, he is the Lord of the coming liberty of the universe. [. . .] The kingdom which Jesus proclaims is the kingdom which the Father has made over to the Son.’ (p. 71). Do you find this a helpful way to understand the preaching of Jesus?
2. Through a commentary on the significance of the phrase ‘giving up’, Moltmann puts forward the idea that on the cross, the Son is ‘God-forsaken’. ‘The Father forsakes the Son for us – that is to say, in order to become the God and Father of the forsaken. The Father “delivers up” the Son in order through him to become the Father of those who have been delivered up.’ (p. 81). What do you make of that idea?
3. Moltmann interprets the raising of Jesus, and the ‘seeing’ of the risen Jesus eschatologically, in terms of ‘looking in advance into the coming glory of God’(p. 85). How does this compare to how you have previously understood the resurrection?
4. In reflection on the idea of the kingdom being ‘transferred’ from Father to Son, Moltmann writes: ‘Eschatology accordingly is not simply what takes place in the Last Days in heaven and on earth; it is what takes place in God’s essential nature’. What do you make of this interpretation of 1 Cor 15: 22-28?
Moltmann now turns to ‘the history of the Triune God with the world’, and reminds us of his earlier point, that if there is really a relationship between God and the world, then it must follow that ‘the world and human history must also be perceived in their significance for God’ (p. 98). So the doctrine of the Trinity is tied to this basic perception, that the world ‘means something’ for God. In this chapter, Moltmann develops a trinitarian account of creation, one that culminates in a eschatological panentheism, in which the work of the Spirit results in the indwelling of God in the world, and the world in God.
1. What do you think it means to say that ‘the idea of the world is already inherent in the Father’s love for the Son’ (p. 108)?
2. Moltmann develops the idea of the self-limitation in God, as part of his attempt to give a trinitarian account of creation (108-114)? What do you make of this idea?
3. Moltmann connects the Holy Spirit with the work of ‘glorification’, and with the thought that the work of the Holy Spirit is about God coming to be at home in the world; in the heart, in the community, in the new creation (p. 125, 128). Do you agree that this means we must understand the Spirit as a ‘person’ in the sense of the ‘subject’ of action (p. 125-6)?
In this chapter Moltmann outlines his critique of ‘strict monotheism’, and engages in more detail with creedal Trinitarian theology.
1. In the section ‘what divine unity?’ Moltmann puts forwards one of his most important points: that Christian theology needs a trinitarian understanding of divine unity, rather than simply a monotheistic one: ‘The concept of person must therefore in itself contain the concept of unitedness or at-one-ness...’ (p.150). What do you make of this idea?
2. At the end of the section on ‘the doxological Trinity’, Moltmann interprets the distinction between the immanent and the economic Trinity eschatologically: ‘the economic Trinity completes and perfects itself to immanent trinity when the history and experience of salvation are completed and perfected.’ (p. 161). Does this provide a helpful interpretation of the distinction between God as free and independent, and God as involved in the world through love?
We would greatly appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to provide feedback on your experience with the course. Please complete the evaluation form here:
Evaluation form - Thinking with Theologians: JM
Thank you for your time and valuable input.
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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.
