Moltman”s theological autobiography

The first 60 pages of Moltmann’s autobiography are a mixture of memoir, hindsight, family gossip and reflections on the formative experiences of war and the political and spiritual rebuilding of Europe. Some of the central insights and arguments of Moltmann’s later theology are traced to experiences that now, with hindsight and from the perspective of an established theologian, he sees to be of decisive impact on his development. To that extent, autobiography provides important context for his theology – and it’s up to us, the readers, to decide if this is crucial inside information that drove his theological interests, or whether his established theological positions are being read back into earlier experiences. Almost certainly both, and who better to interpret and contextualise the personal world out of which theology grows, than the person who lived in it and through it. Of course there are other contextual perspectives, perhaps better detailed by more objective observers – but they don’r have the passion, the poignancy and the personal nerve centre that vitalises theological autobiography.

Here’s one of Moltmann’s pastoral memories – worth pondering by those called to preach living words to living people that enhance life. he is recalling his early days as a totally inexperienced pastor in a rural and remote farming community:

My own personal theology developed as I went from house to house and visited the sick. If things went well, on Monday I learnt the text for the following Sunday’s sermon, took it with me as I visited the congregation and then knew what I had to say in my sermon. Here a ‘hermeneutical circle’ developed, not the one between textual interpretation and one’s own private interpretation…but the one between textual interpretation  and the experience of a community of people, in their families, among their neighbours, and in their work. In conversation I came to believe that this was a shared theology of believers and doubters, the downcast and the consoled.

Jurgen Moltmann, A Broad Place, pages 59-60.