Reviewed Book: Braaten, Carl E. The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg: Twelve American Critiques, with an Autobiographical Essay and Response. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1988

Wehrfritz-Hanson, Garth

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The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg: Twelve American Critiques, with an Autobiographical Essay and Response

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 17Issue 1 Adult Education Article 165-1-1991The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg: TwelveAmerican Critiques, with an AutobiographicalEssay and ResponseGarth Wehrfritz-HansonFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationWehrfritz-Hanson, Garth (1991) "The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg: Twelve American Critiques, with an AutobiographicalEssay and Response," Consensus: Vol. 17 : Iss. 1 , Article 16.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol17/iss1/16Book Reviews 153The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg: Twelve Amer-ican Critiques, with an Autobiographical Essay andResponseCarl E. Braaten and Philip Clayton, editorsMinneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1988352 pp. with bibliography. $37.50Wolfhart Pannenberg is one of the most prolific and celebrated contem-porary theologians. This volume—which marks 25 years since Pannenbergfirst travelled to the U.S. as a visiting professor—promises to be “an accu-rate barometer of the influence Pannenberg has had in America, as well asthe sorts of reservations that English-speaking theology brings to his work”( 10).This is a rather eclectic work, representing a wide cross-section of con-tributors and subjects. As is the case in most volumes of this nature, someessays are more creative and stimulating than others—depending, of course,upon one’s theological agenda and posture.In his autobiographical sketch, Pannenberg briefly acknowledges hisdebt to medieval studies, and scholars like Edmund Schlink, Gerhard vonRad, Karl Barth, Karl Jcispers, and Hans von Campenhausen. Accordingto Pannenberg, any systematic theologian worth her or his salt must masterphilosophy as well as the natural and social sciences sufficiently before heor she is able to develop a doctrine of God. Pannenberg claims to be atheologian of the whole Christian community and his theology addressesthat community.Process theologian John B. Cobb Jr. begins Part I—Philosophical andMethodological Critiques. Cobb questions the notion that theology is theproduct of objective or confessional thought. Feminist and liberation the-ologians have presented quite convincing Ccises against the “objectivity” oftheology. Cobb is more skeptical than Pannenberg about the historicalfuture and consummation of history. He doubts that the future end ofhistory holds the solutions to all worldly problems. Thus Pannenberg isfaulted for his failure to change now for the sake of justice and an improvedpresent condition for the two-thirds world. He also questions Pannenberg’sview of human freedom. Cobb suggests that Pannenberg fails to appreciatethe pivotal nature of subtle, unconscious decisions in the human being’smoment-to-moment existence.Readers familiar with Pannenberg’s concept of anticipation-prolepsiswill enjoy Philip Clayton’s essay. Clayton critiques the “ontological” senseof prolepsis and doubts that Pannenberg is able to bcise a system of thoughtupon such a concept. He gives Pannenberg high marks for his attention tothe philosophical underpinnings of theology.David Polk opens Part II—Theological Critiques. With an esteemedyet cautious response to Pannenberg’s development of “the all-determiningGod”, Polk probes God’s freedom and omnipotence, human will/freedom154 Consensusand the absolute immutability of God in relation to the temporal processof history.Avery Dulles critiques Pannenberg’s view of the resurrection as tran-scendent and eschatological; proposing that there are other phenomenathrough which we encounter God’s self-revelation. Dulles has detected anexcessive “Hegelian rationalism” in Pannenberg’s theology and advises thatin the future he might focus more on the subjective, personal qualities inrelation to knowledge.Robert Jenson believes that Pannenberg’s Christology and trinitariantheology place a very heavy emphasis upon the historicity of Jesus’ resurrec-tion. Jenson is skeptical of a historian’s ability to confirm the resurrectionof Jesus. Jenson opines that: “Karl Rahner has provided a maxim for muchcontemporary trinitarian theology: ‘The immanent Trinity is the economicTrinity.’ Pannenberg is among those who have adopted it” (197).Richard John Neuhaus in Part III— Applications, states the premisethat, for Pannenberg, theology is the crucial point of all meaning. He thenpresents a kind of apologetic for Pannenberg’s universal, absolute truth-claiming theology over against the deficiencies of contemporary particulartheologies. However, does the Church not have to be equally cautious inbaptizing a universal, absolute truth-claiming theology? The history ofChristianity has suffered much from this theology. For Neuhaus, there is acontinuity of historical Christian truth claims which must test the troubledwaters of contemporary theologies.Ted Peters gives readers a very enlightening interpretation of the univer-sal Christian truth-claims in Pannenberg’s theology as it applies to ethicsand politics. According to Peters, Pannenberg’s “proleptic ethics and pol-itics” insists that “the common good” takes precedence over individualgood, national, ethnic, racial, class, etc., good. The common good is theinbreaking of God’s reign. Peters believes that Pannenberg’s eschatologicalethics are both “disjunctive”— i.e., having little or no continuity betweenthe present and the ultimate future rule of God—and “conjunctive”— i.e.,the present has some influence upon the reality of the future. He thenpresents an excellent comparative analysis of Pannenberg’s ethics with thatof John Howard Yoder, John Cobb and several liberation theologians. Pe-ters’ essay is perhaps the best of them all in the sense that it is mostprovocative and written in a lucid, captivating style.Carl Braaten’s essay provides readers with a very good overview ofChristianity in relation to the world religions. Braaten contends that re-ligious pluralism has been around for a long time. A new relativism nowinfluences Christianity and the world religions. The paradigm shift in the-ology is from Christocentricity to theocentricity; from no salvation outsideof the Church and sola fide to salvation through all the world religions. Hesuggests that Pannenberg’s theology insists upon theocentricity and Chris-tocentricity. Braaten maintains that “a theology of religion” is a necessarycorrective to “the sciences of religion” (296). He agrees with Pannenbergand a host of other scholars “that there is genuine revelation of God withinBook Reviews 155the history of religions” (309). What he finds problematic is Pannenberg’slack of a clearer distinction between “general” revelation and “special” rev-elation. He also questions whether Pannenberg views Christianity as supe-rior in relation to “the soteriological efficacy’’' of other religions.In “A Response To My American Friends”, one encounters a little ofPannenberg’s angst cls well as his proficiency. He does not believe—in re-sponse to Braaten—that the truth claims of all religions are equal. Onthe other hand, he believes that the doctrines of Christian churches areprovisional and do not guarantee truth. Only the final consummation ofGod’s reign shall reveal the truth in all of its fullness. Until then, the truthis openly disputed and encountered in fresh ways. Pannenberg critiquesthe God of process theology as well as their anthropology. In response toCobb, he denies having a closed-mindedness towards third world and fem-inist theologians; yet he finds liberation theologians’ uncritical adoption ofMarxist analysis problematic. His eschatological ethics always presupposethe traditional Lutheran anthropological position that sin and ambiguityare ever- present and shaping human life. For Pannenberg, the ecumenicalmovement shows its greatest promise in bilateral dialogues. He sees theWorld Council of Churches’ role as the facilitator of this process.This volume is quite esoteric and therefore most appealing to Pannen-berg scholars. The cost may be prohibitive for some. The editors are to becritiqued for not using inclusive language and failing to include feminist aswell as other particular/contextual theologians.Garth Wehrfritz-HansonSt. John’s Lutheran Church, New Sarepta, AlbertaHindu-Christian Dialogue: Perspectives and Encoun-tersHarold Coward, editorMaryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1989xix + 281 pp.Edited by Harold Coward, Director of the Humanities Institute of theUniversity of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, this volume draws together schol-arly research, anecdotal material, and the personal reflections of eighteenscholars and religious thinkers. The result of their work not only reviewshistorical and current interactions between representatives of the Hinduand Christian communities, but also considers future exchanges. Part Iopens with an examination of the earliest contacts Hindus had with theSt. Thomas Christians. Other essays in this section trace Hindu-Christiandialogue in missionary activity, the Hindu Renaissance, Indian nationalism.

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The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg: Twelve American Critiques, with an Autobiographical Essay and Response

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