Jürgen Moltmann's passing in 2024 called forth a wave of remembrance and appreciation, highlighting once again his place in the firmament of contemporary theology. In this session, the Open and Relational Theologies Unit will consider Moltmann's legacy as a theologian of freedom and relationality. Session papers will explore: the "kenotic grammar" of Moltmann's theology and the power of kenosis to provide creaturely freedom; a reading of Moltmann and Balthasar on divine passibility that places vulnerability, risk, and trust at the heart of the divine essence and the center of human freedom and flourishing; Moltmann’s influence on theologies of disability, with an emphasis on his spirit of liberation; Moltmann’s interpretation of Christ’s "friendship on the cross" as a model for liberative human friendship; and Moltmann's concept of "open friendship with God," seen through Jesus's encounters with women in John's Gospel, as a resource for feminist theology.
The theology of the late Jürgen Moltmann is often thematized according to the motif of hope. Ryan Neal and GM Saaiman are representative of this sort of commentary, and it has proven fruitful across diverse applications of Moltmann’s work. This study argues, however, that Moltmann should also be considered a “theologian of freedom.” For hope, like faith, requires an object: hope for what? And when this question is pressed, across all of Moltmann’s major works, the result is the same: hope for freedom, for liberation, and for justice. Moltmann says that God is the author of hope through the divine promises. But far less recognized and understood is that Moltmann also considers God the author of freedom, and that God instantiates such freedom via divine kenosis. This study thus presents an original and holistic reading of Moltmann as a relational-kenotic theologian and of his deeply formative grammar of freedom.
In this paper, we intend to show how Jürgen Moltmann’s rejection of classical divine impassibility can be developed by Hans Urs von Balthasar. He can move Moltmann’s soteriological theodicy and social Trinitarianism further into an eternal, inter-Trinitarian kenosis which provides grounding for a transformative relational anthropology—all the while not simply subsuming God into creation.
By building Balthasar’s kenosis atop Moltmann regarding God’s relation to creation, incarnation, and death, we can perceive not only a God who is in solidarity with human suffering and bringing hope, but in whose Trinitarian life itself can be found all the contingency, suffering, and change of creation, not as stranger but as archetype. This can better resolve impassibility and establish human beings as essentially similar relational entanglements—in all our sufferings and joys. Then, we might know how vulnerability, risk, and trust makes for, and truly feels, a free and flourishing human life.
The death of Jurgen Moltmann last year was a profound loss, not only to theologians and religious scholars, but also to the ecclesiastical community. Despite not writing extensively about disability or constructing a systematic theology of disability, he was a pioneering voice from systematic theology who engaged with the topic of disability. It is important to note that Moltmann often discussed disability from a personal perspective, as his older brother, Hartwig, lived with severe disability and became one of the victims of euthanasia in the Nazi regime. In my presentation, I will share my findings on Moltmann's views on disability in his writings, lectures, and interviews. I will also share my findings on Moltmann’s theological influence on the writings of disability theologians, namely, Nancy Eeisland, Amos Yong, Deborah Creamer, Thomas Reynolds, and John Swinton. I will try to find Moltmann's spirits of liberation in the writings of these disability theologians.
Following his 2024 death, Jürgen Moltmann leaves behind the theological idea of friendship, which as the potential to advance freedom amidst today’s sufferings and oppressions. He asserts that Christ’s friendship on the cross is the example for human friendship. Once touched by Jesus’s friendship, one replaces patterns of oppression with the kind of friendship which advances the care and liberation of the other. This paper will argue for Moltmann’s belief that Jesus’s example of friendship spurs the kind of human friendship which creates freedom. First, Jesus’s friendship with us will be examined. Second, the affection inherent in friendship for those who are both the same and different is argued. Third, this work argues that friendship launches one into public solidarity and advocacy for his friend. Human friendship, in the example of Jesus, has the potential to promote a freer society.
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.