Identity and Relevance:The Theological Dialectic of the Cross in Jürgen Moltmann

• Main Authors: Pao-Chi Chang, 張寶琪
• Other Authors: Ken-pa Chin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/55221430615155234427

碩士 === 中原大學 === 宗教研究所 === 91 === ABSTRACT The Christian life of theologians, churches and human beings is faced more than ever today with a double crisis: "the crisis of identity"(Identitätskrise) and "the crisis of relevance"(Relevanzkrise). There are tension and complement between these two crises. Professor Jürgen Moltmann discussed the double crisis with the dialectical method. This essay begins with the double crisis and then extends to the discussion of the epistemology of God. In Moltmann's view, Christian Faith should be back to Bible, back to Paul and Luther's theology of cross. It should be identified with the Crucified Christ. The epistemological principle of the theology of the cross can only be this dialectic principle : the deity of God is revealed in the paradox of the cross. The dialectical principle of "revelation in the opposite" does not replace the analogical principle of "like is known only by like", but alone makes it possible. In so far as God is revealed in his opposite, he can be known by the godless and those who are abandoned by God, and it is this knowledge which brings them into correspondence with God. The Christian church and Christian theology become relevant to the problems of the modern world only when they reveal the hard core of their identity in the crucified Christ and through it are called into question, together with the society in which they live. This research of the theological dialectic of the cross in Jürgen Moltmann will find out the reflection upon the cross leads to the clarification of what can be called Christian identity and what can be called Christian relevance, in critical way with our contemporaries.