Sacred Suffering and Social Evolution in Political Theology of Jurgen Moltmann

Subject Areas : Christianity

زهرا khoshk jan ¹ (استاد یار علوم سیاسی دانشگاه شهید باهنر کرمان)

Received: 2019-08-05 Accepted : 2019-08-05 Published : 2018-07-23

Keywords: sacred suffering, the Trinity event, theology of hope, Christianity, Jurgen Moltmann,

Abstract :

This article tries to study the relation between the concept of suffering and socio-political action in the Jurgen Moltmann's political theology and tries to answer these questions: How suffering became sacred in Christian theology? And how this sacred suffering in the political theology of Moltmann is portrayed as a positive and pragmatic action? For Jurgen Moltmann suffering plays a vital role in the development of socio-political context.  So he introduces the concept of "suffering for change" as a key concept in the "theology of hope". He tries to connect the Trinity event, as a hopeful suffering, and the necessity of social action for Christian community. For him, the theology of redemption is a social interpretation of the Trinity event and it demands the active participation of Church in the social issues and its support of redemptive movement. 

References:

- Bauckham, Richard, “Theodicy from Ivan Karamazov to Moltmann”, Modern Theology, 4, no.1, 1987.

- Billington, Ray, Living Philosophy, An Introduction to Moral Thought, New York, Routledge and Kegan press, 1988.

- Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Christ the Center, NewYork, Harper San Francisco, 1960.

- Christie, Murray, David, A History of Heresy, NewYork, Oxford University Press, 1989.

- Cooper, Burton Z., “Why God: A Tale of Two Sufferers”, Theology Today, vol.42, January 1986.

- Davis, Jayne H., “Opening Dialogue: Jürgen Moltmann’s Interaction with the Thought of Karl Barth”, Review and Expositor, no.4, 2003.

- Dawe, Donald, The Form of A Servant: A Historical Analysis of the Kenotic Motif, Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1963.

- Farrow, Douglas, “In the End is the Beginning, A Review of Jürgen Moltmann’s Systematic Contributions”, Modern Theology, vol.14, July 1963.

- Fiddes, Paul, The Creative Suffering of God, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988.

- Grenz, Stanley, The Social God and the Relational Self: A Trinitarian Theology of the Imago Dei, Louisville, Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.

- Jaeger, John, “Abraham Heschel and the Theology of Jürgen Moltmann”, Perspectives in Religious Studies, vol.24, Summer 1974.

- Kleinman, A, Suffering and it's Professional Transformation, Berkley, University of California Press, 1997.

- Meeks, M. Douglas, “Jürgen Moltmann’s Systematic Contributions to Theology”, Religious Studies Review, vol.22, April 2002.

- Moltmann, Jürgen, The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1996.

- Idem, The Crucified God, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1985.

- Idem, God in Creation, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1974.

- Idem, “Godless Theology: Believing and Doubting”, Christian Century Journal, 117, no.36, 1974.

- Idem, The Motherly Father: Is Trinitarian Patripassianism Replacing Theological Patriarchalism? In God As Father?, (eds) Johannes Baptist Metz and Edward Schillebeeckx, NewYork, Seabury Press, 1981.

- Idem, Theology of Hope, Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1967.

- Wilkinson, Lain, Suffering a Sociological Introduction, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2005.