The Dialectic of Crucified and Creative Love in Moltmann’s Early Theology

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines Moltmann’s concept of God and his interpretation of divine love in his early theology, spanning the period from the publication of his first two major constructive works, Theology of Hope (1964) and The Crucified God (1972), until the publication of The Church in the Power of the Spirit (1975). The middle to late 1970s mark a “natural break” in Moltmann’s theological development, since at that point he began to shift from his thematic and highly contextual approach to theology and start the systematic development of his mature theology.’ Although Moltmann did not lay out a full-fledged doctrine of the Trinity in these earliest writings, they presage his mature trinitarian theology in several key aspects. Here we discover key interpretations of scripture, motifs drawn from the Western theological tradition, and analyses of contemporary culture, all of which recur in a more nuanced form in the Messianic Theology. A central aim of this chapter will be to identify these theological resources in Moltmann’s early writings to clarify both the biblical and the conceptual origins of his later trinitarian theology.