It is highly unusual for German theologians to engage feminist theology in their work. Jürgen Moltmann was the exception. Inspired by his wife Dr. Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel’s discovery of feminist theology, and his work with political and liberation theologies, Moltmann incorporated key insights drawn from feminist theology throughout his Messianic Theology. To name two examples: in The Trinity and the Kingdom (1981), Moltmann responded to feminist challenges to exclusive male language for the Godhead, proposing that the God of the Scriptures is best understood as a “motherly father,” one who embodies a mother’s caregiving nature. Through this image, Moltmann sought to overturn the patriarchal God the Father as a deity of domination. A second example can be found in God in Creation (1985). Here Moltmann follows the lead of ecofeminist theologians (Sallie McFague, Catherine Keller) and develops a panentheistic model of the God-world relationship, one that expresses the intimate care that God has for all of God’s creation. Beyond this dialogue with feminist theology in his works, Moltmann co-published with his wife Passion for God: Theology in Two Voices (2003), in which Moltmann-Wendel explored the implications of the intimate friendship with God for women’s well-being and Moltmann did the same for the life of prayer.
The theological exchange between Moltmann and feminist theologians proceeded also in the opposite direction. Christian feminist theologians in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa engaged Moltmann’s theology appreciatively and critically in their works. Of particular note is how many feminist, womanist, Asian and Latina theologians (Grant, Joh, Johnson, Jones, Pineda-Madrid and Williams) wrestled with his provocative notion of a suffering God from The Crucified God: does it encourage women to pursue dangerous forms of self-sacrifice or embody divine solidarity amid the gender injustices perpetrated against them?
That theological exchange notwithstanding, there has been scant attention to how Moltmann’s Messianic Theology provides conceptual openings for constructive feminist theology today. This paper addresses this lacunae. I identify a key concept, “open friendship,” that threads through his entire oeuvre, and contend that it represents an unexplored overture to feminist theologians today. I explore how they could appeal to “open friendship” to depict the intimate communion of the human community with the Triune God. Further, I contend how open friendship serves women and men as a “law of grace,” a regula fidei to pursue “the righteousness of the kingdom of God” through working for mutuality, equity, and justice in all human relations (The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 117).
In the opening section of my paper, I trace the origins of “open friendship” in The Church in the Power of the Spirit (1975). There Moltmann introduces this concept as the fourth and highest office of Jesus beyond the classical offices of prophet, priest and king. Building on Luke 7:34 and John 14:13 and his modern German philosophical tradition (Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche), Moltmann describes Jesus’ friendship as an inclusive friendship that offers forgiveness to the sinner, and love to those deemed unlovable by the world. Jesus invites intimate prayer with God and reaches out with joy to those on the margins of society. His is a Christological mandate to practice an inclusive friendship that encompasses “the soul and the body, the people who are like ourselves and the people who are different” (The Church in the Power of the Spirit, 121).
Second, I explore Moltmann’s return to “open friendship” as the centerpiece to the “social experience of God” in The Spirit of Life (1991). Against the backdrop of debates about the nature of divine love as eros, agape, and philia, Moltmann paints a vibrant picture of the right relationship between God and human beings, one that cultivates attitudes of prayer, joyful worship, and personal freedom in one’s social relations. Moltmann daringly describes humankind’s “open friendship with God” as an erotic relationship, one that affirms God being affected by human beings’ questioning and pleas for justice. In so doing, he builds on his earlier appeals to a suffering God in The Crucified God (1972), an incarnate God that identifies with, takes up, and heals human suffering. Open friendship anchors individuals’ and communities’ faith, hope, and love in so far that God in his providence responds to human concerns with extravagant love. Finally, “open friendship” provides the paradigm for the “social experience of God,” right relationship to oneself and to one’s neighbors; it insists on the pursuit of freedom and dignity for all persons as imago Dei.
Third and finally, I recommend Moltmann’s “open friendship” as an overture to feminist theological anthropology today. As the gift of the Holy Spirit, “open friendship” calls women and men alike into a holistic discipleship anchored in personal freedom, a firm commitment to the well-being of others, and resistance to patriarchal structures. This gift of grace inspires a spirituality of resilience and eschatological hope in the face of the shocking rise of sexism and misogyny in our cultural imaginary today. To mount this argument, I consider three encounters of Jesus with women in the New Testament: the Samaritan woman receiving living water at the well in John 4, the women gathered at the cross in John 19, and Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen Christ in John 20. These three encounters symbolize the “open friendship” that Jesus extends to women, a via salutis that comprises divine forgiveness and feminist conversion, a gathering of women in sorrow and solidarity, and a rising up to proclaim the Good News of Christ’s life-giving Spirit to animate his circle of disciples and reaches those on the margins of society.
In conclusion, I recommend “open friendship” as Moltmann’s bold overture to feminist theology today—as a gesture of friendship to their work and an invitation to develop a transformative feminist theology of grace. “Open friendship” is akin to a musical overture that anticipates the major themes of a work, but does not fully predict their development ahead. That task is left to the theological imagination of Christian feminist theologians today.
This paper argues that Jürgen Moltmann’s concept of “open friendship” represents an overlooked overture to feminist theology today. As a “law of grace,” it invokes “the righteousness of the kingdom of God” through mutuality, equity, and justice in human relations. In particular, Jesus’ “open friendship” inspires a spirituality of resilience and eschatological hope to counter the sexism and misogyny in our cultural imaginary today. To mount this argument, I consider three encounters between Jesus and women in John’s Gospel: the Samaritan woman at the well, the women at the cross, and Mary Magdalene’s encounter with the risen Christ. I contend that these encounters carve a feminist via salutis of forgiveness and conversion, of gathering in sorrow and solidarity, and of rising up to proclaim the Good News of Christ’s life-giving Spirit. In sum, I commend “open friendship” as Moltmann’s invitation to pursue a radically transformative feminist theology of grace.