moltmann's theology of hope

i am finally getting to a book, actually the first of three books, by theologian jurgen moltmann...

a professor i enjoyed in seminary had studied with him in europe and there were different things that he mentioned that i found intriguing. years ago i made a promise to myself and i am finally getting around to 'really' reading 'theology of hope' but just for fun - no assignment or papers due...i have done the 'cliff notes' approach in the past but now i am going to dive deep.

in addition to the actual book i have been trying to read some biographical information mostly online and am enjoying how the life of the theologian and his writing are complimentary, contextual realities shaping the interest inside the text...the bio helps discern the angles of the theology - angles that i think i understand in my own experiences:

"In the Scottish labour camp, together with some other astonished prisoners, I was for the first time given a Bible by a well-meaning army chaplain...I read it without much comprehension, until I stumbled on the psalms of lament: '...I was dumb with silence...my lifetime is as nothing in thy sight...for I am a stranger...' They were the words of my own heart and they called my soul to God. Then I came to the story of the passion, and when I read Jesus' death cry, 'My God, why have you forsaken me?' I knew with certainty: this is someone who understands you...the divine brother in distress, who takes the prisoners with him on his way to resurrection. I began to summon up the courage to live again, seized by a great hope...This early fellowship with Jesus, the brother in suffering and the redeemer from guilt, has never left me since."

one writer geiko muller-fahrenholz says that moltmanns theology is born out of the question, "My God, where are you?...and remains a questioning theology, a theology of curiosity."

now indulge me a little or give me some space to go on with the writers summary as it continues...

"It comes into being in the night of an immediate and cruel proximity to death, and therefore in the end it is never about learned intellectual games but about questions of life and death. It does not arise out of the peaceful and cheerful awareness of an unshakeable certainty in God but out of the abysmal experience of the remoteness of God. Therefore it does not have any apologetic interest either, and does not assert that it should or could develop something like a closed 'system' of learning about God. No 'Dogmatics' has come from Moltmann's pen, no 'Summa' of theology."

if you are still reading - one last thing he said of himself (that explains his theological work that has been somewhat experimental, incomplete, existential, and in its contribution has been both significant and fragmentary):

"For me, from the start theology has been an adventure with an uncertain outcome, a voyage of discovery into an inviting mystery. My theological virtue has not been humility, but only curiosity and imagination for the kingdom of God."

i really like that part about curiosity and imagination for the kingdom...

thank you dr. james strauss for the introduction years ago, your teaching was like a large jumbo jet landing in my backyard and now i am finally reading the work of one of your mentors.

so back to something i mentioned earlier - that relationship between a biography and a theology is something i find fascinating and as i reflect on my own life it is illuminating...especially as i think about my sermons and the things that i get most passionate about...