-
Essay / An Empathetic God: Moltmann's Intercentered Theology
Christianity has at its center a pivotal moment in history with all its theological and practical hinges. To undertake a Christology is to consider what, in the nature and character of God, would necessitate and facilitate the cross. While classical theology has often disdained any idea of a God who has feelings and emotions, Jürgen Moltmann rejects this idea by showing that God empathically suffers and experiences humiliation alongside humanity in the person of Jesus. . This article will aim to investigate Moltmann's concept of a suffering God, particularly in contrast to the classical notion of God's impassibility. He will then explore how his claims might influence theology and worship. Finally, we will briefly consider how Moltmann's theology of the cross can find application in a Wesleyan faith ecology. “The death of Jesus on the cross is at the center of all Christian theology. »1 If Karl Barth is Christocentric in his approach to Church Dogmatics, then Moltmann is completely cross-centered in his crucified God. It makes clear that all aspects of theology – creation, God, sin and death, faith and sanctification, the future and hope – all find their foundation in the cross of Christ. The cross is not the only theme, but it is "the entrance to His problems and answers on earth."2 It is through the cross that we learn the nature and character of God, especially as 'they are revealed in Trinitarian terms. Through the events, from the humiliation, beatings, suffering, abandonment and abandonment to the pain and agony of his slow death, Moltmann rejects the classical position that God is apathetic and emotionless nor feeling; he proposes that God is deeply moved as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is more than a legal translation...... middle of paper ......r to resurrect Him. Through the cross, God burst into the fallen world and revealed Himself more completely than ever before. Moltmann fully highlights the loving nature of God, one who would do anything he could to save humanity – the sacrifice of a Son. And Jesus retained the fullness of his divinity while plunging headlong into suffering and death on behalf of the world. There is now no place where God has not been. Works Cited Dunning, H. Ray. Grace, Faith, and Holiness: A Wesleyan Systematic Theology. Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1988. Moltmann, Jürgen. The crucified God: the cross of Christ as the foundation and critique of Christian theology. 1st Fortress Press ed. Minneapolis: FORTRESS PRESS, 1993. Oden, Thomas C. The Word of Life (Systematic Theology. Vol. 2). Peabody, Mass.: Prince Press, 2001.