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A Critique of Jürgen Moltmann's Green Theology.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
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Jiirgen Moltmann became famous for his brilliantly perceptive studies on the tasks of theology, first: to answer a despairing world with a Theology of Hope, and second: to answer a world which could no longer believe in God’s existence in the midst of evil with The Crucified God.’ While the first book stressed the resurrection of the crucified one as the basis for our hope, the second stressed the reality of Christ’s death in concrete solidarity with our suffering.
As we might expect, the dominant question of theology then was in relation to the future of humanity, and the fashion in German theological discussions was a focus on history, rather than a concern with creation as such. However, even at this stage, Moltmann’s vision showed tendencies to look beyond that of a narrow understanding of our humanity, so that he aimed to include creation as a whole within the orbit of both the suffering and future hope in Christ. His novelty at this stage was to reject all ideas of a search for a return to an ideal paradisical state, the so-called ‘myth of eternal return’. Such views had become part of the traditional cosmological interpretation of our world which had been challenged by post-enlightenment science. Once humankind perceived its relationship with the world as one of mastery over nature, the ‘cosmological’ proof of God from creation was no longer convincing. Moltmann does not want us to regain our sense of security by returning to a facile cosmology, but insists that we put our hope in the God of the Future, who promises a new creation as witnessed by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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- Copyright © 1992 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 Theology of Hope; translated by J.W. Leitch, London, SCM, 1967; hereafter referred to as TH; God in Creation; translated by M. Kohl, London, SCM, 1985, hereafter referred to as GC.
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19 I am well aware of ambiguity in using terms such as ‘nature’; for a discussion, and useful definition of nature understood as both the totality of processes and the context within which human activity takes place, see Kaufman, G.D., The Theological Imagination, Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1981, p. 213Google Scholar.
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21 A good example of Moltmann's earlier anthropology is ‘Man and the Son of Man’, in Essays on the Unity of Mankind, Nelson, J.R., ed., Leiden, Brill, 1971, pp. 203–224CrossRefGoogle Scholar. His prime concern here was to outline our significance as human beings, and ‘He stands in solidarity with creation, yet is set over it through his relationship as God's counterpart. Man is thus placed in an eccentric position … As God's image he is the “crown of creation” when he is really “man”’, p. 212.I take issue with W.C. French who suggests that Moltmann's God in Creation is a ‘grand reversal of theological direction and sensibility, a seismic shift from a focus on history, eschatology and “openness to the future”, to one on nature, creation and respect for “dwelling” within the present’, p. 79 French, W.C., ‘Returning to Creation; Moltmann's Eschatology Naturalized’, Journal of Religion, 68, 1988, 78–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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30 WJC, pp. 195–196.
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33 Ibid., p. 153.
34 I am not going to digress into justifying the basic task of theology in engagement with contemporary culture. A useful summary of Moltmann's position is ‘The Challenge of Religion in the ’80's', in Theologians in Transition, Wall, J.M., ed., New York, Crossroad, 1981, pp. 107–112Google Scholar.
35 Moltmann's apparently limited engagement with scientific ideas partly explains J. Polkinghome's review of God in Creation entitled ‘Creation Without the Scientists’; Expository Times, 97 (9), 1986, 285CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
36 Molnar, P., “The Function of the Trinity in Mollmann's Ecological Doctrine of Creation”, Theological Studies, 51(4), 1990, p. 686Google Scholar.
37 McDade, J., ‘Creation and Salvation: Green Faith and Christian Themes’, The Month, Nov. 1990, 433–431Google Scholar.
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