Wolfhart Pannenberg

Abstract This paper will examine the implications of an extended “field theory of information,” suggested by Wolfhart Pannenberg, specifically in the Christian understanding of creation. The paper argues that the Holy Spirit created the world as field, a concept from physics, and the creation is directed by the logos utilizing information. Taking into account more recent developments of information theory, the essay further suggests that present creation has a causal impact upon the information utilized in creation. In order to adequately address Pannenberg's hypothesis that the logos utilizes information at creation the essay will also include an introductory examination of Pannenberg's Christology which shifts from a strict “from below” Christology, to a more open “third way” of doing Christology beyond “above” and “below.” The essay concludes with a brief section relating the implications of an extended “field theory of information” to creative inspiration, as well as parallels with human inspiration.

Christian theology is staked on the distinctiveness of salvation history as the arena for divine action, but this claim has been questioned in light of the movement known as Big History, which seeks to tie the trajectory of historical developments to natural, evolutionary history. This paper proposes an analogy between evolution in nature on the one hand with historical development on the other, utilizing the theologies of Wolfhart Pannenberg and Bernard Lonergan. It argues that history is directly transcendent to nature and this claim would mean that Big History is less successful in relativizing theological claims than its advocates believe. God is indirectly transcendent to nature via history. One implication of this perspective is that it is too simplistic to argue for the existence of God on the basis of a straightforward interpretation of nature without reference to history.

Does the notion of 'Trinitarian persons' have any practical value for the lives of Christians today? While theologians such as Karl Barth and Karl Rahner have famously argued that 'person' is an outdated term that can no longer adequately speak to contemporary Christians because of shifts in the term's meaning, others like Wolfhart Pannenberg are convinced that these shifts are the precise reason that the term 'person' is more valuable than ever for trying to understand God and the divine/world relation. This article seeks to set forward a clearer definition of Pannenberg's use of the term 'person' in contrast to the definitions set out by Barth and Rahner and will use this definition to demonstrate the significance of Trinitarian personhood for theology.

Prompted by the September 4, 2014 passing of a Continental titan of Protestant systematic theology, this article summarizes the life and thought of Wolfhart Pannenberg. A brief review is offered of his conversion from atheism to the Christian faith, student studies, and faculty positions along with his corpus of writings. An in-depth analysis is offered of Pannenberg's key theological commitments to creation, eschatology, Christology, Trinity, retroactive ontology, prolepsis, anthropology, and the relationship between time and eternity. The scale and complexity and subtlety of Pannenberg's worldview renders it vulnerable to charges of incoherence; but few can doubt the masterful achievement of the gift of this person's life—a gift from God—to the world of Christian theology.

In her eschatology, Antje Jackelén labors to repudiate dualism between time and eternity. Eternity is not merely timelessness, she argues. Rather, eternity consists of multi-layered time, wherein the present time is influenced by our hope in God's promised future. In this Festschrift chapter, I explicate the Jackelén eschatological vision while offering an expanded commentary on its value for the ongoing creative mutual interaction between science and theology, especially cosmology and eschatology. More specifically, I show that open trinitarian theism affirms that the temporal created world is taken up into the divine eternity. Time lodges in eternity, while eternity enters time proleptically. History counts within God's trinitarian life. What happens within time has eternal ramifications when eschatology is thought to point to fulfillment, to consummation, to redemption.

Wolfhart Pannenberg is one of the most important theologians of the second half of the twentieth century. This volume offers the first full historical and thematic survey of Pannenberg’s corpus, from his early work on the theology of revelation and Christology, to his writings on anthropology, theology, and the university, and the pivotal achievement of his systematic theology. In the process of this survey, it identifies the broad, consistent development in his work across his career, as well as several significant revisions to his positions. As such, the project makes a significant contribution to the theological assessment of his career and will be a useful text for students and scholars in modern and contemporary theology.

In addition to the historical survey of his career, The Unity of Theology identifies four key themes in Pannenberg’s theological system and traces their development. These themes of anticipation, interdisciplinarity, public theology, and diversity in unity also help to further articulate the importance of his contribution to contemporary theological approaches in light of the challenges of post-modernity. Pannenberg’s work is creative in its fidelity to the biblical witnesses and creative in its interaction with the key questions of the day.

In the current debate in Trinitarian theology, the so called “communional” model emphasizes the reciprocal relations between the three divine persons working in the history of salvation because it has a one-sided view of the relations of origin of the Father to the Son and to the Spirit, which is the basis of the classical “generic”
model. The present study re-examines Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae as an exemple of the second model and its interpretations by Wolfhart Pannenberg and Gisbert Greshake, defenders of the first model. It then suggests a more operational and conceptual articulation: a “reciprocity” that is more than a simple symmetry, and an “asymmetry” which, being more than simply one-sided, does not contradict such a reciprocity. Two models are thus formulated which each in their own way take this double factor into account. This new typology of two models allows us to conceive the constitution of the three divine persons while paying as much attention to their common relationality as to what is proper to each of them.

For Pannenberg, the eschatological future is considered as the locus where the ultimate causation lies. Such an idea shapes Pannenberg’s doctrinal accounts of Christ and the Trinity in an idiosyncratic way. However, as this article will indicate, the idea is derived from the Plotinian myth that time can become a whole and so a vessel of divine infinity when it reaches the End. Dispensing with the faulty assumption but retaining the concept of the priority of the future, this article will argue that divine eternity as the totality can engage with history directly at any point of time, without a detour via the eschaton.

This essay seeks to make a contribution to Catholic practical theological methodology through a discussion of "anticipation" as developed in the theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg. Its main thesis is that an understanding of the proleptic and anticipatory character of revelation and tradition can help articulate the role of tradition in the normative task of a Catholic practical theology. The first section of the paper looks at the normative task of practical theology and how this is reflected in the Whiteheads' Method of Ministry. Then it seeks to explain the notion of "anticipation" and its implications for a theology of tradition. Finally it draws out the implications of incorporating this concept into practical theological method. Zusammenfassung: Dieser Aufsatz untersucht das Motiv der "Antizipation" in der Theologie Wolfhart Pannenbergs und leistet damit einen Beitrag zum Methoden-diskurs der römisch-katholischen Praktischen Theologie. Er führt die These aus, dass die normative Funktion von Traditionsbeständen für die Praktische Theolo-gie klarer erfasst werden kann, wenn Offenbarung und Tradition als proleptisch und antizipatorisch verfasst begriffen werden. Der Aufsatz erörtert das normative Moment Praktischer Theologie anhand des in Nordamerika gebräuchlichen An-satzes Method in Ministry von James und Evelyn Whitehead. Anschließend wird Pannenbergs Begriff von "Antizipation" in seiner Bedeutung für ein theologisches Verständnis von Tradition erläutert. Der Aufsatz schließt mit Hinweisen dazu, was es bedeutet, dieses Motiv im methodengeleiteten praktisch-theologischen Ar-beiten zu berücksichtigen.

The topic under consideration is the change in the human self understanding in the secular culture, according to Pannenberg, a contemporary thinker of great rational strength. The author poses some questions which underline the ambiguities of secularization and its historical causes. The result has been a new model of manAccording to Pannenberg, the impact of the (17th-18th centuries) Modern ideas over the concept of the self has been great. The author highlights the fact that some of Pannenberg´s arguments are contradictory, because his logic about God does not go beyond the rational sphere, for him the problem of atheism and secularization lies in God inaccessibility, not in man´s will. Abstract-The topic under consideration is the change in the human self understanding in the secular culture, according to Pannenberg, a contemporary thinker of great rational strength. The author poses some questions which underline the ambiguities of secularization and its historical causes. The result has been a new model of man According to ideas over the concept of the self has been great. The author highlights the fact that some of Pannenberg´s arguments are contradictory, because his logic about God does not go beyond the rational sphere, for him the problem of atheism and secularization lies in God inaccessibility, not in man´s will. Even if man thinks that religion belongs to an outpaced age, when he is placed in front of the sacred, he feels surpassed and overwhelmed. He looks for that being that God wanted to be his image. Man does not stop being a task for himself. Only by rising to the religious subject is when freedom gets its true meaning, ethics reaches its pure content, and interpersonal relationships become stronger.

Is it even legitimate to talk about scriptural authority in the postmodern context where metanarratives are rendered obsolete; or, do we need to rely on a circular appeal to scripture to validate its own claims? This essay grapples with the issue of revisioning the scriptural authority by challenging the epistemic presuppositions of foundationalist and nonfoundationalist methods to construct a postfoundationalist conception through a dialectical interaction between these suppositions. This thesis will argue that while Wolfhart Pannenberg’s theological methodology confines the scope of propositional revelation to only history (manifestational revelation), Nicholas Wolterstorff’s Divine Discourse limits propositional revelation to only divine speech (nonmanifestational), by reading them dialectically, we can arrive at a viable postfoundationalist position that enables us to understand scriptural authority without succumbing to foundationalist or nonfoundationalist binary.

We can see an abundant use of the term «Vorstellung » (representation) in the first volume of Wolfhart Pannenberg's Systematic Theology. Such employment is not harmless for an author who studied as much the work of Hegel. After a few reminders about the relationship between theology and representation in the Hegelian system, the author shows that this practice reveals a definition of theology, and her limit: theological statement can not be reduced to its sole function of meaning.

RESUMEN: Este artículo trata de examinar la naturaleza conceptual del tránsito de la filosofía a la teolo-gía en la reflexión sobre la unidad y el sentido de la historia en el pensamiento de Wolfhart Pannenberg. Nos proponemos esclarecer si el movimiento que efectúa Pannenberg desde una perspectiva filosófica a una teológica en su tratamiento de la historia responde a una necesidad de la propia filosofía o si podría interpretarse, más bien, como una «deuda» contraída con sus presuposiciones teológicas.

Wolfhart Pannenberg reproche à Karl Barth sa méthode de la théologie trinitaire qui postule un sujet divin antérieur à sa triple différenciation si bien que le fils et l’esprit sont « unilatéralement » dépendants du Père, et il se décide pour une autre méthode qui souligne une dépendance « réciproque » des trois personnes dans la révélation, afin d’affirmer leur unité eschatologique avec l’identité du Dieu en soi et du Dieu dans l’histoire. Revenant à la théologie de Thomas d’Aquin, notre étude formule deux modèles qui tiennent compte de la « réciprocité » et de l’« asymétrie » dans la relation divine. Les théologies pannenbergienne et barthienne sont analysées en tant qu’applications de ces modèles, cette dernière étant revisitée avec Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Les implications des deux modelés sont ensuite examinées à l’exemple de la mort du Christ qui « prend notre place sur la croix », la théologie barthienne étant encore développée avec une idée de Michel de Certeau : « faire place à l’autre ».

The article offers a critical appreciation of the Lutheran theologian Hermann Cremer (1834-1903), the leading figure of the so-called Greifswald School at the turn from the 19th to the 20th century. In particular, I consider Cremer’s essay on the doctrine of God’s attributes from 1897 in the context of his soteriology and theological epistemology, with a particular emphasis on his creative revision of the concept of God’s righteousness. According to Cremer, God’s grace is efficient precisely in and through God’s judgment. I also look at Cremer’s debate with Karl Friedrich Nösgen on the ‘righteousness of faith’ and the idea of justification by faith alone. Cremer’s thinking is then brought into conversation with several interpreters of his work in the 20th century. I conclude by raising some questions for further discussion, especially in regard to Cremer’s concept of conscience.

Questo studio, dedicato al razionalismo critico di Hans Albert - la prima monografia sul filosofo tedesco in Italia - intende metterne in luce le possibilità costruttive e i limiti. Sviluppando e radicalizzando il pensiero di Popper, nel confronto con altri suoi “allievi” quali Feyerabend e Bartley, Albert rifiuta ogni forma di processo fondativo – sia in epistemologia, sia negli altri ambiti della prassi umana – e attacca polemicamente le correnti teologiche e filosofiche emergenti e più influenti: la Scuola di Francoforte, la pragmatica trascendentale di Apel, l’ermeneutica di Heidegger e Gadamer, fino agli sviluppi della teologia in Bultmann, Ebeling, Pannenberg e Küng. Su quest’ultimo fronte, in particolare, si concentra questo libro, dal momento che la filosofia albertiana vuole delineare una coerente immagine del mondo, figlia del progresso della civiltà occidentale improntata alla ricerca empirica della verità: l’interlocutore naturale diventa quindi la religione, espressione di una metafisica “sociomorfa” che le scienze empiriche avrebbero contribuito a distruggere. I dibattiti e le polemiche suscitati dal fallibilismo di Albert vengono riferiti con larga ampiezza, e si fa così conoscenza del suo stile, sempre brillante e talvolta sprezzante, ma spesso ricco di argomentazioni acute ed efficaci.