I wanted to share a brief in memoriam and thanks be to God for the life and theology of Jűrgen Moltmann, who entered into the church triumphant on June 3, 2024 at the age of 98.
Moltmann was an extraordinarily influential theologian on Lutheran Churches all around the world, and that includes several generations of Lutheran Theologians in the United States. What’s more, his theology isn’t just for the professionals; instead it has very significant ramifications for all Christians, as we seek to live faithful lives of discipleship in the world.
In my view, Moltmann’s lasting influence comes in two categories: the cross, and hope.
Arguably, Moltmann‘s most important work is The Crucified God. [The image at the top of this post is well-known: on November 16, 1989, six Jesuit priests and two women were murdered by El Salvadoran special forces on the campus of the University of Central America in San Salvador. This blood-soaked copy of The Crucified God was discovered near the body of one of the martyrs, and today it is preserved in the university’s museum.]
In The Crucified God, Moltmann makes a compelling argument that God is not removed from the life of the world, indifferent to the suffering of God‘s children, or unmoved by the struggles we experience in the world. Instead, in the crucifixion, God willingly takes all of human pain, grief, suffering, and even death into God’s own being, and unites us with God forever. And then, in the resurrection, God conquers that sin and suffering and loss, and brings us new life in Jesus Christ.
This new life in Jesus Christ is the foundation of Christian hope. Moltmann has been a theologian of hope from the very beginning of his career. Over and over again, he described a hope-soaked world, a world saturated with the vibrant colors of new life and new beginning–not because of anything that we do, but because of the loving, transformative power of the Holy Spirit who is constantly at work in us—in all of us—to further the in-breaking of the kingdom of God.
So for me, speaking personally now, I can say that Moltmann gave me the language for understanding how the crucifixion stands at the heart of God’s very being, and how the face we see of the suffering Christ on the cross is the true face of the God who loves us so passionately that God will not allow any of us to be separated from God, even in our worst misery and isolation. And out of this lavish love, and the renewal of all life that we experience in the resurrection, Christians are empowered to be people of hope, people who know God is up to something amazing, doing a new wondrous thing in the world. In this sure hope, Christians live boldy as disciples, confident in the knowledge that God never gives up, never lets go, whose loving faithfulness endures forever.
I give thanks to God for Jűrgen Moltmann and rejoice in his proclamation of the crucified God of hope, who now cradles Moltmann in eternal life.
Happy Lutheran 