JÜRGEN MOLTMANN

Theology of Hope

ON THE GROUND AND THE IMPLICATIONS OF A CHRISTIAN ESCHATOLOGY

To My Wife

THEOLOGY OF HOPE

On the Ground and the Implications

of a Christian Eschatology

First Fortress Press edition, 1993

Translated by James W. Leitch from the German, Theologie der Hoffnung (Christian Kaiser Verlag, Munich, 5th ed., 1965). Preface to the new paperback edition translated by Margaret Kohl.

Copyright © 1967 in the English translation by SCM Press Ltd. New Preface copyright © 1991 HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write to: Permissions, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440.

Author photo: Thomas Kucharz

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Moltmann, Jürgen.

[Theologie der Hoffnung, English]

Theology of hope: On the ground and the implications of a Christian eschatology / Jürgen Moltmann: [translated by James W. Leitch: preface to the new paperback edition translated by Margaret Kohl].

p. cm.

Translation of: Theologie der Hoffnung. 5th ed.

Reprint. Originally published: New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8006-2824-1 (alk. paper)

1. Hope—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Eschatology. I. Title.

BT821. 2. M6313 1993

236—dc20

93-29966

CIP

CONTENTS

Preface to the New Paperback Edition

Preface

Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION: MEDITATION ON HOPE

1. What is the ‘Logos’ of Christian Eschatology?

2. The Believing Hope

3. The Sin of Despair

4. Does Hope Cheat Man of the Happiness of the Present?

5. Hoping and Thinking

I ESCHATOLOGY AND REVELATION

1 The Discovery of Eschatology and its Ineffectiveness

2 Promise and Revelation of God

3 Transcendental Eschatology

4 The Theology of the Transcendental Subjectivity of God

5 The Theology of the Transcendental Subjectivity of Man

6 ‘Progressive Revelation’ and the Eschatology of Salvation History

7 ‘History’ as Indirect Self-revelation of God

8 The Eschatology of Revelation

II PROMISE AND HISTORY

1 Epiphany Religions and Faith in Terms of Promise

2 The Word of Promise

3 The Experience of History

4 Revelation and Knowledge of God

5 Promise and Law

6 Promise in the Eschatology of the Prophets

7 The Historifying of the Cosmos in Apocalyptic Eschatology

III THE RESURRECTION AND THE FUTURE OF JESUS CHRIST

1 Gospel and Promise

2 The God of the Promise

3 Paul and Abraham

4 Fulfilment Ecstasy in Primitive Christianity and the eschatologia crucis

5 The ‘Death of God’ and the Resurrection of Christ

6 The Historical Question of the Resurrection of Christ and the Questionableness of the Historical Approach to History

7 The Approach of Form-Criticism to the Easter Narratives and the Questionableness of its Existentialist Interpretation

8 The Eschatological Question as to the Future Horizon of the Proclamation of the Risen Lord...