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Resurrection as Hope*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Jürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann
Affiliation:
Tübingen University
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Extract

The Resurrection of Christ: Traditional Questions

The “Resurrection of Christ” is controversial. It does not fit into the modern world of things calculable and manipulable. Is it a historical event among other historical events that took place or that are still taking place? Is it a symbol of the language of times past?

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , April 1968 , pp. 129 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1968

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References

1 Stendahl, Krister, Immortality and Resurrection. Death in the Western World: Two Conflicting Currents of Thought (New York: Macmillan, 1965)Google Scholar, Introduction, 6.

2 Cf., on the exegetical historical and systematic discussion of the resurrection of Christ in Germany, the excellent collection of essays by Klappert, B., Diskussion um Kreuz und Auferstehung (Wuppertal: Aussaat Verlag, 1967)Google Scholar.

3 Cf. Anderson, H., Jesus and Christian Origins. A Commentary on Modern Viewpoints (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 185 ffGoogle Scholar.; Pannenberg, W., Grundzüge der Christologie (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus G. Mohn, 1964)Google Scholar; Moltmann, J., Theology of Hope (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), 139 ffGoogle Scholar.

4 The resurrection was not so much seen as a further event in the history of Jesus after his death, which was added to the events of his life and death, but rather understood as a new eschatological qualification of his life and death. The systematic question of whether it is a matter of a new “constitution” or only of a “confirmation” and revelation of his eschatological person cannot be answered as an alternative. The event of God's raising of Jesus from the dead was surely understood as a new, unexpected event. The basis for his resurrection, however, is found in his obedience in living and dying. For this reason, his life and death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead can be stated theologically in the double formulation: God gave him for this purpose — God raised him from the dead.

5 Cf. Kramer, W., Christos, Kyrios, Gottessohn (Zürich: Zwingli Verlag, 1963), 32Google Scholar: “Since then, the resurrection constituted (or confirmed respectively) the eschatological status of Jesus, ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν is thus the interpretation of the death of this eschatological person.”

6 A Christology of resurrection and a Christology of the life of Jesus are then not really opposed to each other, although they have been placed in opposition repeatedly in modern times.

7 Cf. Stuhlmacher, P., Gerechtigkeit Gottes bei Paulus (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1965)Google Scholar; Mattern, L., Das Verständnis des Gerichtes bei Paulus (Zürich: Zwingli Verlag, 1966)Google Scholar, and especially E. Käsemann, Die Anfänge christlicher Theologie, and Zum Thema der urchristlichen Apokalyptik, Exegetische Versuche und Besinnungen, II (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1964), 82 ffGoogle Scholar. and 105ff.

8 O. Cullmann, Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection of the Dead, in Immortality and Resurrection, op. cit., 9ff. Cf. also the criticism of H. A. Wolpson, Immortality and Resurrection in the Philosophy of the Church Fathers, op. cit., 54ff.

9 Pannenberg, W., Was ist der Mensch? (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1962)Google Scholar; Grundzüge der Christologie.

10 J. Pedersen, Wisdom and Immortality, Suppl. to Vetus Testamentum III [1955], 245.

Also Rad, G. Von. Theologie des Alten Testamentes, I (München: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1957), 404Google Scholar.

11 Cf. to the following, E. Käsemann, Gottesgerechtigkeit bei Paulus, in Exegetische Versuche und Besinnungen, II, 181ff.

12 Ibid., 127.

13 Cf. to the discussion of this in opposition to the surprising state of affairs in the doctrinal tradition of the church found in Molitor, H., Die Auferstehung der Christen und Nichtchristen nach dent Apostel Paulus (Münster i. W.: Aschendorf, 1933)Google Scholar; Schwantes, H., Schöpfung der Endzeit. Ein Beitrag zum Verständnis der Auferweckung bei Paulus (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1962)Google Scholar; L. Mattern, op. cit., 76ff.

14 Evidence for the following exposition can be found in Atzberger, L., Geschichte der christlichen Eschatologie innerhalb der vornizänischen Zeit (Freiburg: Herder Verlag, 1896)Google Scholar; Haixer, W., Die Lehre von der Auferstehung des Fleisches bis auf Tertullian, Zeitschrijt für Theologie und Kirche 2 (1892), 274–342Google Scholar; H. A. Wolfson, op. cit.

15 Cf., especially for this, Tertullian, De resurrectione mortuorum, cap. 55–56.

16 Dibelrus, M., Jesus (Berlin: W. de Gruyter Verlag, 1960, Third Edition), 118Google Scholar: “Something must have taken place which, in a short period of time, not only called forth a complete reversal of attitude, but also enabled them to new activity and to founding the Christian congregation. This ‘something’ is the historic kernel of the resurrection faith.”

17 Cf. the discussion of the notion of the “historical” (Historischen) between Ebeling, G., Theologie und Verkündigung (Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr/Paul Siebeck, 1962)Google Scholar, W. Pannenberg, Grundzüge der Christologie, J. Moltmann, Theology of Hope, 172ff. and 230ff., and B. Klappert, Diskussion um Kreuz und Auferstehung.

18 I. M. Crombie and John Hick have spoken similarly of an “eschatological verification” of God's existence. Cf. Hick's The Existence of God (New York: Macmillan, 1964), 252 ffGoogle Scholar.

19 Cf. Bultmann, R., Glauben und Verstehen, III (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr/Paul Siebeck, 1960), 113 ffGoogle Scholar.

20 Nietzsche, F., The Use and Abuse of History (New York: The Liberal Arts Press, 1949), 15Google Scholar.

21 Ibid., 19f.

22 Hegel, G. W. F., Vorrede zur Philosophie des Rechtes, Sämtliche Werke (Stuttgart: Fr. Frommans Verlag, 1952), 36 fGoogle Scholar.

23 The distinction of this category was first introduced into social anthropology by Moses Hess. Cf. his 21 Bogen aus der Schweiz, which was published by Georg Herwegh in Zürich in 1843. See also Silberner, E., Moses Hess. Geschichte seines Lebens (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1966)Google Scholar. E. THIER has shown the influence of Moses Hess on Karl Marx in his work, Das Menschenbild des jungen Marx (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1957)Google Scholar. The anthropological evaluation of the dialectic of being and having is carried out by Plessner, H. in Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch (Berlin, 1928)Google Scholar, Lachen und Weinen (Bern: Franke Verlag, 1958)Google Scholar; Buytendijk, F. J. J., Das Menschliche. Wege zu seinem Verständnis (Stuttgart: K. F. Koehler, 1958)Google Scholar; Marcel, G., Being and Having (New York: Harper and Row, 1965)Google Scholar.

24 Tertullian, De resurrectione mortuorum, 8, 2.

25 Mark 8:35.

26 Hegel, G. W. F., Phenomenology of the Mind (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1910), 93Google Scholar.

27 Brown, N. O., Life Against Death. The Psychological Meaning of History (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University, 1959)Google Scholar.

28 Marx, K., Die Fruhschriften, ed. Landshut, S. (Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1964), 301Google Scholar.

29 Bonhoeffer, D., Letters and Papers from Prison, rev. ed. by Bethge, E. (New York: Macmillan, 1962), 225 fGoogle Scholar.

30 Cf. Marsch, W.-D., Gegenwart Christi in der Gesettschaft (München: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1965)Google Scholar.

31 Hick, John, Evil and the God of Love (New York: Harper and Row, 1966)Google Scholar. This work can be noted as the resumption of a theology in the horizon of the question of theodicy.