Jürgen Moltmann, Karl Marx and God: An Unlikely Trinity

Abstract

Among scholars familiar with the work of Jürgen Moltmann there exists little debate that this most prominent of German theologians has been deeply influenced by Marxist categories of thought. Perhaps most notable and most obvious in this regard is the influence that the revisionist Marxist and Jewish atheist Ernst Bloch exacted upon Moltmann's first major work, Theology of Hope. Additional and subsequent impact was derived from Moltmann's involvement with the Christian-Marxist dialogue that gained prominence in the 1960s. Moltmann was . likewise deeply influenced by his critical and constructive involvement with the growth of Latin American Liberation Theology. Because of the debt owed to varied strains of Marxist thought by each of these persons or movements, consideration of the interplay between Marxism and Moltmann has been inevitable. In spite of this tendency, however, surprisingly little attention has thus far been focused on the connections that exist between Jürgen Moltmann's thought and Karl Marx's germinal writings on religion. Rather, the discussion has persistently centred around Moltmann's involvement with a variety of individuals or groups who have variously appropriated the work of Karl Marx.