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A Broad Place: An Autobiography

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I was first captivated by the theology of Moltmann in the 1970's when I read his first major work, "Theology of Hope". My own concern for social political realites found theological partners in theologians like Moltmann, Metz, Schillebeeckx and the new "theologies of liberation".

This autobiography in a glimpse into those moments of a person's life that remind us that theology has much to do with one's own experiences of love, suffering, justice and hope. Throughout this book I sense I was looking into the soul of a man tested by life's crosses but who, none the less, was filled with resurrection joy.

His discussion of his search for Christ and where he found him, or perhaps more correctly where Christ found him, is poignant and inspiring. His work with Catholic Theologians like Kung, Metz, Kaspar and others reminds us that Christians of all denominations have one thing in common, the desire to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ in the real world with its real problems.

One of the strengths of the book is the discussion of his family life. This is a love story between a man and women sharing that love with others in so many ways.

I have read all of Moltmann's books because they help to rekindle within me hope and resistance to oppression and suffering in the power of the Spirit. His retirement comes to the theological community as a great disappointment because we believe he has so much more to say. But we are grateful for the wintess and life of J. Moltmann and wish him and his family a joyous retirement.

This book is a window into the mind, heart, and life of one of the most influential and creative theologians of the twentieth century. If you are interested in hearing the story behind Moltmann's expansive theological project, then read this book.
A BROAD PLACE begins with Moltmann's youth and conversion in the wake of WW2, then traces the beginnings of his theological studies, the construction of his theology of hope, his political theology, his theology of the cross, his trinitarian theology, his ecological doctrine of creation, and ends with reflections from the symposium of theologians gathered for his seventieth birthday.
From the beginning, when Moltmann recounts how his comrades were blown to pieces (right next to him!) at the close of WW2, one is gripped by the story of someone who "felt rescued by Christ" from his own darkness and guilt. You then see how his early experiences as a German soldier and POW reverberates throughout the rest of his life, how this man continues to "read the Bible with the searching eyes of a God-forsaken prisoner" as he crafts his many theological contributions. His theology of hope takes on new meaning when we read about the cavernous, suffocating despair from which it emerges. It also fleshes out why he is so passionately committed to Jewish-Christian dialogue, for the horrors of Auschwitz have never left him.
Moreover, Moltmann gives intriguing details on what takes place in his own life that leads him to develop his theology of the cross, his theology of the people, and his theology of Exodus and the kingdom of God. Along the way, Moltmann travels the world to interact with a wide array of people, including Marxists in Europe, liberation theologians in America, theologians and pastors in Asia, and numerous ecumenical gatherings all over the planet. (I kept asking myself, "How can one person do all this?!")
There are also many tender moments where Moltmann speaks of his love and respect for his wife Elisabeth, someone who has deeply impacted his theological outlook, especially by helping him better understand how women see and experience God and the community of creation.
Therefore, if you are curious about the ecumenically-minded person behind the many books he's written, then check out A BROAD PLACE. It is a vivid example of "biographical theology/theology as biography," one from which "the unquenchable spark of hope" glints off nearly every page. [If you want a more detailed assessment of A BROAD PLACE, then check out my review in Anglican Theological Review, Summer 2008.]

Most clergy have a favorite theologian or two, theologians whose work has influenced their own understandings of the ways of God. For me, one of those theologians, is Jürgen Moltmann, who is now in his 80s. Moltmann, who was for many years, Professor of Theology on the Protestant Faculty at Tübingen University, is nearing the end of his own life journey. From that place, Moltmann has laid down his own account of his life, and the title - A Broad Place - is an apt one, for his story is a broad one, full of experiences and responses to those experiences that have formed him as a person, as a Christian, and as a theologian.

For a theologian such as Moltmann, an autobiography may be the proper place to explore a theology, for his theology is not so much the working out of a theological system as it is a series of theological reflections on a life journey. His journey begins in the context of a secular German family. It is liberal but also nationalistic. His is a family of teachers, and there is nothing in that early biography that would suggest that he, a person without God or a church, would become one of the leading theologians of the second half of the 20th century and early decades of the 21st century. Yet, a war and time as a prisoner of war would provide an opportunity for an encounter with God in Jesus Christ that would transform his life and that of many others.

World War II raised important questions in his mind - including why he survived, when friends did not, and where God was in the midst of the terrors of war. As he was trying to put his life back together in a POW camp in Scotland, he was handed a Bible, and that Bible provided a starting point for seeking the answers to those questions. The texts that spoke most clearly to him were Psalm 39, which offers a cry of lamentation, and Jesus' cry on the cross found in Mark's Gospel - "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me."

In this early reflection on the Scriptures you see the seeds of a theology of hope and a theology of the crucified God, the fellow sufferer who reveals God's love to you. But more was to come, as the life of a Christian, a pastor, and a theologian began in earnest.

A Broad Place is a first person account of a life lived in the theological and ecclesial world. It alternates summations of his best-known works and projects with accounts of family, travels, conferences, debates, feuds, and academic politics. If one has never read Moltmann, this may be a good place to start, even if it is rather long. But by reading this, one better understands the nature of Moltmann's theology and even his theological method. What one must do is not get bogged down in the names and dates and places. Moltmann does drop a lot of names, many of whom most American readers will likely not know. But even here there is a richness, because the reader realizes that his theological reflections have emerged out of real life conversations and experiences. His was not a life spent in the study, but was lived in public.

In the course of a long and distinguished career, in which Moltmann has reached the pinnacle of greatness, he has touched upon most of the major doctrinal issues, but he has not left us, and doesn't plan to leave us, with a system. That isn't his way, which may be a good thing. Although hope and eschatology are key concepts in his theology, it would be wrong to try to force his theology into a box called a "theology of hope." His is Trinitarian, Christ-centered, Spirit-centered. It is a political theology and a public one. It's influenced by Barth, but has gone beyond Barth. It is rooted in the Reformed tradition, but especially his view of the Trinity has been influenced by the Eastern church. It has engaged liberation theology, but isn't liberationist per se - he recognizes his white male, first person context out of which he writes. It is distinctly Christian, but not in a triumphalist way. He was influenced by his encounters with the Marxism of his late Tübingen University colleague Ernst Bloch, but he's not a Marxist. He has been touched by and influenced by, perhaps more than by any other person, the thoughts and work of his wife, a theologian of note in her own right, Elisabeth Moltmann Wendell. Just a note on his wife, she was a doctoral student at Gottingen, working under Otto Weber, even before he was.

Reading the book, especially in preparation for attending a conference in which the author was the featured presenter, gives a good sense of the person. Having read widely in his corpus of works over the years, incorporating many ideas as a result, the book provides context for these works - including ones I've not read or at least not read deeply enough. Perhaps it goes with the genre, but the book reveals a man of deep faith, but also a bit of vanity. He can be hurt and offended by critics, and he can offer some criticisms of his own. There is a bit of the name dropper as well. But again, that's to be expected. He has traveled widely - and the book has a bit of the travel-log in it as well - and knows or knew many important people. He has received many honors, some of which he shares.

Although written in the golden years of life, the story is not yet complete. There are chapters still to be written, but the life lived so far has been influential on the lives of many of us, even if we have only known him through his many published works. If you have interest in Moltmann, then this is a book that needs to be read.

I have been a fan of Moltmann ever since I came across 'The Crucified God' a decade or more ago. Although too young to remember the initial impact of his books' publications (I was one when the English translation of 'The Crucified God' was published), his influence on me has been profound and long-lasting. Thus it was with some interest and anticipation that I received this book for Christmas.
It started well. The first 100 or so pages are fascinating: his childhood growing up in a rural community movement, typical of many German movements of the time; his elder brother's disability and subsequent disappearance in the Nazi regime; his experiences of operation Gomorrah (the Allied bombing of Hamburg that killed more than 40,000), including witnessing the violent death of his friend, stood a few feet from him; his war experiences (which have an almost comic edge as he runs and runs, not firing a shot); his experiences as a POW in Scotland; his nascent faith, motivated by the questions that arose during Operation Gomorrah; his seminary days in Gottingen, under the tutelage of such luminaries as Joachim Jeremias, Rudolf Bultmann, Oto Weber, Ernst Wolf, Gunter Bornkamm and Walter Zimmerli; his pastorship in Wasserhorst, a small farming community near Bremen.
However, there is no attempt to contextualise, which is odd given Moltmann's theological leanings: how did his parents' community movement differ from the others of the time? Why were these so common in the Germany of the 20s and 30s? How do his seminary experiences differ to those of young pastors or theologians today? Are the changes for better or worse? What is the church's role in society? How does the gospel relate to farmers in the Bremen hinterland? (On a separate note, a map of Germany would have been invaluable; Moltmann casts names of towns and regions about with abandon, and for a non-German, these meant very little, and I didn't want to fire the computer up to locate them every 5 minutes. A map would help with this contextualisation.)
After such a promising beginning, it defaults to a fairly uninteresting, bland, diaristic account of his life: 'then I went to such-and-such a place and met so-and-so. After that I went to St Louis and gave a lecture. From there I flew to ...' After a while it became rather boring. The professional theological life may be like this, but is his really what people want to read? Where is the insight, the penetrating intellect?
Perhaps that's the problem with autobiographies: they descend into a benign, unintentionally self-congratulatory reminiscence. A biographer is better able to suggest a pattern, and to order the material to present a thesis. If you're looking for that sort of thing, then you won't find much of it here, but, given that there are no biographies of Moltmann yet (come on Richard Bauckham!), it's better than nothing.
One final point: it hasn't been very closely proof-read: 'Ausgustine' instead of Augustine, zeroes pop up in the text instead of 'o' occasionally, and there are rogue hyphens to be encountered.