The Realism of Hope: The Feast of the Resurrection and the Transformation of the Present Reality

Some of the great festivals that Christians (in our country) celebrate appeal to us, some do not. In a way we respond to some of them, but others estrange us: we do not know what to do with them. Many people obviously feel that Christmas has value for them. Regardless of what they think about it, they nevertheless have the feeling that God comes close to them again and that in His nearness they find human warmth. The Totensonntag (Sunday of repentance and prayer, last in the Trinity season) affects people who mourn their dead. We can even understand Good Friday. When we see and hear how One who is forsaken by God dies on the cross, we sense that this death might have similarity to our fate

Living God, renew and transform us’ – 26th General Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, in Leipzig, Germany, 29 June to 07 July 2017

The former president of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), Prof. Jerry Pillay, invited Prof Jürgen Moltmann to speak at the General Council of the WCRC in Leipzig, Germany, from 29th June to 9th July 2017. In a special session on Theology, he was requested to focus on the future of Reformed Theology from the perspective of the theme of the General Council, Living God, renew and transform us.This article aims at exploring the theme ‘Living God, renew and transform us’ under the following headings: the living God and the gods of death, the desolation of atheism and the sun of righteousness, just law and the fullness of life. The author relates the ‘God of Life’ to a ‘theology embracing life’. He links the ‘gods of death’ to racism, capitalism and terrorism in which we ‘encounter a new religion of death’. He points out that Christianity is a religion of joy in God and sets out to illustrate this with selected biblical texts. In the section ‘The desolation of atheism’, the author argues that modern atheism offers a ‘reduced life’. To make his point, he refers to his own personal experience and the theological ‘protest atheism’ which arose in the 19th century. The author concludes by stating that atheism offers nothing positive. In the final section, ‘The sun of righteousness, just law and the fullness of life’, the author addresses issues of justice. In referring to the Reformation doctrine on justification, the author states that the justification of victims requires confessio oris, rising up from humiliation and forgiveness.http://www.hts.org.zaam2018Dogmatics and Christian Ethic

The transformation of theology in the present climate crisis

This research is part of the research project ‘Understanding Reality (Theology and Nature)’, directed by Prof. Dr Johan Buitendag, Department of Systematic and Historical Theology, Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Pretoria.Humanity is facing an ecological catastrophe. Culprits include a linear understanding of time which looks only to the future and the human belief in progress. This ideology has remained the same in the search for solutions; technological progress must provide the answer. However, the article argued that a green transformation is needed. Ecological justice is required. Not only the rights of humans but also of nature, the earth and animals should be respected. Ecological justice and social justice are connected. This pertains to the rights of future generations to achieve a green transformation of urban life (Moltmann 2019:87).The article proposed three changes. Firstly, nature should no longer be seen and treated by humans as an object to be exploited but instead as a fellow subject in the green creation community. Secondly, humanity should be seen as embedded in this community of creation. Thirdly, a new cosmic spirituality with a deep respect for life and everything that lives is needed.http://www.hts.org.zaDogmatics and Christian Ethic

Syncretism or correlation: Teilhard and Tillich's contrasting methodological approaches to science and theology

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the article, published in Zygon 40(3) pp.739-750, which has been published in final form at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118699350/issueThis paper revisits Paul Tillich’s theological methodology, and contrasts his practice of correlation with the syncretistic methodological practices of Teilhard de Chardin. I argue that the method of correlation, as referred to in Robert John Russell’s 2001 Zygon article, fails to uphold Tillich’s self-limitation of his own methodology with regard to Tillich’s insistence upon the theological circle. I assert that the theological circle, as taken from Systematic Theology I, is a central facet within Tillich’s methodology and that this often ignored concept needs to be resuscitated if one is to remain authentically Tillichian in one’s approach to the science and theology dialogue

The Trinity and the Kingdom : The Doctrine of God

San Franciscoxvi, 256 p.; 24 c

God in creation : A New theology of creation and the spirit of God

Minneapolisxvii, 365 p.; 22 c

How I have changed: Reflections on thirty years of theology

Harrisburg, PAviii, 130 p.; 22 c