Moltmann's Legacy Amongst Sacramental Charismatics

Jürgen Moltmann, one of the most influential theologians of the last hundred years, has passed away. Here are some of the ways that he has influenced me!

A former German Nazi soldier from Wold War II becomes a Christian and then spends the majority of his life engaged in theologizing about the crucified Christ. Such a headline seems a bit impossible… but not so with Jürgen Moltmann. As detailed in his autobiography, A Broad Place, “the Molt,” as I affectionately refer to him, was born in 1926 and after growing up in a secular German household, he found himself serving with an infantry battalion with the German army. From 1945-47, Moltmann was a prisoner of war. His POW experience included Belgium, London, and Scotland. It was in Scotland, that Moltmann began to really come to terms with the horrors of Nazism and the Holocaust. Moltmann wrote:

“In September 1945 we were confronted in the camp with pictures of the Belsen and Buchenwald concentration camps. They were pinned up in the huts, with laconic commentaries. Some people thought it was just propaganda. Others set the gruesome piles of dead bodies over against the destruction of German cities. But slowly and inexorably the truth seeped into our consciousness, and we saw ourselves through the eyes of the Nazi victims.” (Moltmann, A Broad Place, 29)

Thus began Moltmann’s journey toward Christ. As he was in Scotland, his interaction with the kindness of Scottish people and a chaplain’s gift of a Bible that began to penetrate his heart and planted the seeds for his life’s work of coming to terms with Christ and the broken world that we live in.

I really can’t recommend his autobiography enough. I’ve read it several times and each new reading has left me more grateful for his story. Sadly, Moltmann passed away on June 3, 2024. His Theology of Hope and The Crucified God are widely considered must-reads in theological discourse.

The Lasting Legacy of Moltmann.

While many readers are aware of my tremendous admiration for Moltmann, it may not be as widely known that I disagree with a significant amount of Moltmann’s theology! Many of his theological trajectories and where he ended up are not views that I hold to. I often found his bibilcal exegesis as less than compelling. Yet few theologians have influenced my thinking as much as “the Molt.”

I think what I found so interesting about Moltmann was both his prose, arguments, and convictions related to Jesus, the Cross, and the Church. Moreover, Moltmann took Pentecostals seriously long before the academy and was engaged in dialogues as well as interaction in many of his writings… which often focused on pneumatology (the study of the Holy Spirit).

Here are three things that I consider Moltmann’s lasting legacy for those of us who consider ourselves “sacramental charismatics.”

1. Moltmann’s theology of the kingdom was connected to a theology of freedom.

Hailed as an active voice in the Liberation Theology dialogue of the 20th century, Moltmann’s theology saw a clear connection between the Kingdom of God and that of freedom. As Mülleer-Fahrenholz states:

“For Moltmann, the ‘kingdom of God’ is at the same time the ''kingdom of freedom’. His imagination for the kingdom is meant to be understood as imagination for liberation… I think that it would be appropriate to regard Moltmann’s life work as one great and varied work towards an applied or applicable theology of liberation.” (Mülleer-Fahrenholz, The Kingdom and the Power: The Theology of Jürgen Moltmann, 242)

For those of us who are Charismatic, we’d see this liberation as more than just political (and so did Moltmann). His “imagination” and theological framework helps us establish our theology in relation to the “clash of kingdoms” and should influence out commitment for deliverance from all forms of demonic oppression, both individuals under spiritual oppression and political oppression that exists so rampant in human systems of government (including the west!).

2. Moltmann took experiences of the Holy Spirit seriously.

In the mid 2000’s, I was pleasantly surprised to discover upon reading more of Moltmann’s work that he was a very strong Trinitarian, which means that he believed in the Holy Spirit! In his The Spirit of Life, The Church in the Power of the Spirit, and The Trinity and the Kingdom, Moltmann traced out a pneumatology full of insights, observations, and encouragements for the Church to take seriously both the Person of the Spirit as well as the Holy Spirit’s activities, including charismatic manifestations. These, of course, were not the only books to focus on pneumatological concerns, but are three of my favorites.

In fact, Moltmann encouraged spiritual experiences despite being accused of being an “ivory tower scholar,” writing:

“Many people are quite satisfied to belong to the church, to go to church occasionally, and to agree by and large with the church’s doctrine, even if they do not know much about it, and it does not mean very much to them. The awakening of personally experienced and personally expressed faith is the ‘charismatic experience’ today. Before the mainline churches and the bishops and other leaders ‘quench’ the Spirit of the ‘charismatic movement’, we should all make room for the Spirit, not only in church services, but in our bodies too, since those bodies are, after all, supposed to be ‘a temple of the Holy Spirit’ (1 Cor. 6:19).” (Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, 186)

3. Moltmann had a broad view of the Church.

Similar to John Wimber’s suggestion that the Church was a stew with lots of different ingredients and vegetables, Moltmann was engaged in ecumenical dialogue throughout his career. He wrote:

“… for me personally the ecumenical encounters with theologians from other denominations and from the Third World were very important. My theological horizon was enormously expanded. German theology was largely wrapped up in its own, admittedly very long and rich tradition, and seminars are only concerned with Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Kant, and Schleiermacher, as well as Barth and Bultmann, to name only a few; but now my theology developed in an ever wider ecumenical field. Close links with contextual theologies of the Third World, especially liberation theology, developed. I began to do theology for ‘the whole of Christendom on earth’, no longer only for our own church and our own country.” (Moltmann, A Broad Place, 85)

This commitment to doing theology for ‘the whole church’ followed Moltmann all of his days, as can be seen in his engagement with Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Pentecostalism, and American Evangelicals. It also influenced his appreciation for sacramentality and longing for continued dialogue.

Moreover, Moltmann had a strong sense of ecclesiology undergirding his theological projects. The Church mattered and Moltmann made sure of fleshing this out when he addressed questions of ecclesiology.

RIP to “the Molt.”

I’m indebted to Moltmann’s theological legacy and will continue engaging with his work. I think we in the “charismatic sacramental” world have much to glean from his thinking and as we build on his legacy, we may, indeed, stumble upon more liberation, more ecumenical dialogue, and more spiritual experiences.

If you are looking for something to read, check out his autobiography A Broad Place. It’s fascinating to read how a person could go from a German Nazi to a POW to a leading and influential theologian whose theological works will be read for generations to come.

About the Author

Luke Geraty is a pastor-theologian in northern California. With a few theology degrees and nearly twenty years of pastoral leadership, Luke loves the Bible, theology, fly fishing, coffee, and books. All opinions are his own and not the views of any other organizations he’s affiliated with. You can follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and subscribe to his YouTube.