Jürgen Moltmann, A Broad Place: An Autobiography, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2008), viii + 406 Pps., $29.00.
Jürgen Moltmann is Professor of Systematic Theology Emeritus at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and is probably one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century. Among his many important books are Theology of Hope (1964), The Crucified God (1972), God in Creation (1985), The Source of Life (1997), and Science and Wisdom (2003). Margaret Kohl, who lives near Munich, translates this autobiography of Moltmann from its original German, and has previously translated works by Ernst Käsemann, Wolfhart Pannenberg, among others.
Being a budding theologian myself, having studied theology in both a seminary as well as graduate school, I have read many works produced by Moltmann, and have been significantly influenced by him. I feel a little apprehension in setting out to review an autobiography, so please bear with me. After all, how can one critique – either positively or negatively – a recounting of another’s life? Thus, with some trepidation, I think I will merely highlight some aspects of his life that Moltmann reveals herein.
This book is intensely personal. For example, as a prisoner of war from September 1944 to February 1945, Moltmann recounts the numerous lice that beset him in his sleeping quarters, noting that he would attempt to ‘crack them’ but they proliferated too quickly. He details how his patriotic feelings toward his homeland – Germany – collapsed and died during the rigors of World War II. He notes how the home he came back to was not the home he left, as well as his entrance into theological studies in Hamburg. After attaining a doctorate, he and his wife began pastoring in 1953, and later began teaching at Wuppertal in 1958, where he began to be involved with the ecumenical movement. The publication of his monumental title Theology of Hope opened up opportunities to come to America to lecture, and he accepted an invitation to teach for a year at Duke University in 1967. The stories that he recounts regarding his stay in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, alone make this book worth the purchase price.
After returning from America in 1968, Moltmann began an exploration of ‘Political Theology’, which occupied him during the years of 1968 through 1972. Shortly thereafter, the remembrance of – and reflections in light of – his experiences in the War were formalized into the title The Crucified God. Moltmann expanded his theological horizons in the middle of the 1970s, focusing on such topics as disability, ecumenism, and ecology. In the early 1980s, he began to focus his energies and studies more acutely on trinitarian doctrine, which has persisted well into the present era. His insistence to move beyond substance metaphysics and toward the relational and communal aspects of the trinity has done much to reinvigorate trinitarian theology.
Moltmann is one of the most widely quoted theologians of our time. Often, his voice on a topic is taken to be authoritative by those within and without his particular religious tradition (broadly Reformed). After having celebrated his eightieth birthday, Moltmann looks back on a life engaged in Christian theology in this title, which includes numerous black and white photos of many momentous occasions throughout his life. Moltmann tells his life story, from his Hamburg youth to the present moment, and he reflects on the journey of his own theological development. Moltmann’s autobiography is entertaining, delightful and an insightful read, and thus should be read widely. No single book review can do justice to his autobiography, and this one will now stop trying.
Bradford McCall, Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA.