On the way to God: an exploration into the theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg

Abstract

Wolfhart Pannenberg's understanding of God as the all-determining power of the future is the governing focus of this intensive study which examines the whole structure of Pannenberg's theology from that vantage point. It serves both as a careful exposition of his thought and as a richly nuanced critique of a number of key themes in his theological program. Recognizing that Pannenberg's theology draws from the revelation of God but is also concerned to answer adequately the questions raised by our quest for knowledge, concern for meaning, and boundless 'world-openness, ' the explorations delve into his conceptual prolegomena concerning philosophical truth, historical meaning, and anthropological understanding, and then track in subsequent chapters his view of revelation as that is discernible in the Old Testament, in the tradition of Jewish apocalyptic, and, finally and most importantly, in the life, message, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The guiding principle of this theological exploration is to judge the sufficiency of Pannenberg's theological insights directly on their own merit, without introducing alternative presuppositional perspectives