Jürgen Moltmann was born on April 8th, 1926, and this week is his impressive 96th birthday. Moltmann is the world's greatest living theologian and (along with Karl Barth), has been the most influential theologian I've ever read -- not only for his theological works but also for his personal testimony. Moltmann called himself a "Post-Barthian", and this website is named after his accomplishments after Barth, so I'm deeply grateful for his life accomplishments.

Moltmann's Original Trilogy and Systematic Contributions

As a way to celebrate, I've assembled a few Moltmann resources that I've enjoyed again and again over the years. I was first introduced to Moltmann's writings in 2011 when I read his Crucified God. I was familiar with Martin Luther's phrase the "crucified god" but Moltmann's radically changed my understanding of Jesus Christ to be God crucified for us in the crucifixion of the human Jesus Christ. I eventually met Moltmann in 2016 at the "Moltmann at 90" conference hosted by Emory's Candler School of Theology, and he signed my copy of The Crucified God.

It was immensely helpful as I was working in ministry at a large church in Seattle. I wrote him a letter to express gratitude and ask him further practical questions, and to my delight, he responded. You may my read my Letter From Moltmann too.

Afterward, I read the Trinity and the Kingdom of God, and The Theology of Hope, which formed Moltmann's "Original Trinity" (or others call it the "Original Trilogy"). Eventually, I read all of Moltmann's Systematic Contributions and many of his other books as well. I prefer big dense books, but Moltmann has provided shorter abridged versions of each of these books that are also excellent to read. So if you see any book by Moltmann at a used book store or available for sale, buy it and enjoy it without fear of disappointment. I now have multiple bookshelves full of Moltmann books: here's a video walk-through I did to celebrate Moltmann's 94th birthday (the collection has grown since then).

2009 Emergent Village Theological Conversation with Jürgen Moltmann (audio)

For those of us who enjoy audio podcast, I highly recommend listening to the entire 2009 Emergent Village Theological Conversation with Jürgen Moltmann. It is outstanding, and I've listened to the entire thing at least 5-10 times. Since then, I've befriended many of the speakers from this audio series. Moltmann retells his personal conversion story as Nazi soldier while he was a prisoner of war in Scotland, and provides commentary on theological works. The entire audio is outstanding. 

Moltmann's Life

Understanding Moltmann's theology also requires understanding his life story, and perhaps the most essential source is his auto-biography A Broad Place. 

Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel

Jürgen Moltmann is the husband of Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel (1926-2016), a published feminist theologian of many books. One short book by her that I really enjoyed was The Women Around Jesus which is a short survey of the women that interacted with Jesus during his life.  Moltmann and Moltmann together provide an iconic example of a wife and husband doing theology together. Jürgen said he chose to do his doctorate on Moses Amyraut in order to study under the same doktorvater as Elisabeth in order to spend time with her. 

Moltmann and Barth in Dialogue

For anyone interested in Moltmann's interaction with Karl Barth, I highly recommend reading Barth-Moltmann letter correspondence. Often Barth's initial letter is quoted as a way to discredit Moltmann's Theology of Hope, but Moltmann's autobiography, he said he received it as a tough-love letter to encourage a young theologian (quoted in the previous link). Moltmann eventually wrote an Ethics of Hope, that Barth criticized him for not including in his original Theology of Hope. (It was a pattern for Barth to conclude each volume of the Church Dogmatics with an ethical conclusion.)

The Moltmanniac

I'd like to thank my lifelong friend Ben Merritt (a.k.a The Moltmanniac) for being a co-reader and fellow Moltmann fanatic. His blog "The Moltmanniac" has a plethora of Moltmann resources worth scouring. We've read all Moltmann's books together and have been frequently called "cyclons" for our mutual Moltmann musings. I also encourage all my readers to reach out to Ben and plead with him to get back to writing in the blogosphere. 

Latest Moltmann: Resurrected to Eternal Life

I've you're looking for Moltmann's latest writings, then I highly recommend his recently published: Resurrected to Eternal Life: On Dying and Rising (2021).  It's excellent and I've read it more than twice already. 

More Moltmann

The PostBarthian website is full of Moltmann articles and audio to enjoy for endless entertainment too.

Happy 96th Birthday, Jürgen Moltmann!