Jurgen Moltmann is Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Tubingen in Germany. Available in English are 18 of his books and seven books have been written about him and his theology.

I bought this book as part of my exploration into the various ways that Christians formulate the idea of panentheism. John W. Cooper, the author of Panentheism: The Other God of the Philosophers – from Plato to the Present (book 303) presented Jurgen Moltmann as a panentheist and recommended this book by Moltmann. The original English translation of this book in 1981 had a Preface. The current paperback edition of 1993 has its own Preface. In the ’81 Preface Moltmann said “Here I should like to consider the context and correlations of important concepts and doctrines of Christian theology in a particular systematic sequence. I am not attempting to present a system or a ‘Dogmatics’, however.” … “This work on the doctrine of the Trinity is dedicated especially to an overturning of the schism between the Eastern and Western churches which has so tragically burdened the whole life of the Christian faith ever since 1054.” And he further clarifies his intention in the ’93 Preface with “… here I have developed a ‘social doctrine’ of the Trinity, according to which God is a community of Father, Son and Spirit, whose unity is constituted by mutual indwelling and reciprocal interpenetration.” … “The Orthodox tradition offered more help for this social doctrine of the Trinity than did its Western counterpart. Reactions from Orthodox theology and the dialogue about the ‘filioque’ clause have for me been among the happiest theological experiences of recent years.”

This last quote in part got me to continue with this book, for the ‘happiest theology’ idea intrigued me. The other part was my interest in reading the nearly-2000-year-old history of the development of the various period’s concepts regarding the Trinity. But I was nearly put off by this quote from the first page of the first chapter, “Whether God is one or triune evidently makes as little difference to the doctrine of faith as it does to ethics. Consequently the doctrine of the Trinity hardly occurs at all in modern apologetic writings which aim to bring the Christian faith home to the modern world again.” The table of Contents consists of six chapters, each with two or more sections, with each section having two or more subsections. Thus, with an average of about 3 pages per subsection, this detailed Contents not only makes up for the absence of a subject index but also shows you the contents and the sequence in which he builds up his case for conceiving the Trinity as a social unity (or triune) concept. As I found with other German theologians/philosophers, the progress is systematic, thorough and slow, and sometimes often circular in argument, so at times I felt this book served as a cure for insomnia. However, I did learn a lot from the detailed history, which was itself often circular in nature, of the concept of the Trinity. But one could only infer that Moltmann is a panentheist, for nothing in this book expressed the panentheism idea - God is both in the world and transcendent.

The last subsection is titled Freedom in the Kingdom of the Triune God, which he describes in three stages. (1) “In the kingdom of the Father, God is the Creator and the lord of those he has created.” Created beings are his property. (2) “In the kingdom of the Son, the freedom of being God’s servants is preserved outwardly, but its inward quality is changed. The servants of the lord become the children of the Father.” But this only becomes possible where the Son appears. “Children belong to the family. They cannot be dismissed like servants.” (3) “In the kingdom of the Spirit the sovereign freedom towards the world of God’s servants and the intimate freedom of his children are both preserved; but again the inward quality of these things are changed. The servants of the Lord and the children of the Father become God’s friends.” … “By virtue of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, people enter into this new ‘direct’ relationship with God. The freedom of God’s friends does not evolve out of the freedom of God’s children. It only becomes possible when people know themselves in God and God in them. That is the light of the Holy Spirit.” … “The friend knows that his friend is listening to him. God ‘can be conversed with’.” The three stages can be called ‘growth’ if growth is understood as “maturing through experiences that are continually new.” As for the hereafter, he says “The thirst for freedom cannot be quenched by any partial satisfaction. It knows no limits. That is why even the freedom of God’s friends is not yet complete freedom.” When God is known face to face, then “freedom finally finds its fulfillment in God himself. Then freedom means the unhindered participation in the eternal life of the triune God himself, and in his inexhaustible fullness and glory.” Upon this Moltmann rests his case for how the Trinity must be understood. I have no idea if other theologians accept this view. But the way Moltmann conceives the Trinity does give one food for thought. But then, all the older concepts that he carefully analyzed, but rejected, are also food for thought. If you like long, systematic theological constructions, you will probably like the thoroughness of Moltmann’ book. I would have enjoyed much more brevity.