The Function of the Trinity in Moltmann's Ecological Doctrine of Creation

Abstract

Harper and Row, 1985) xi; hereafter abbreviated Creation. 2 Ibid. xii. Among other things, this thinking eventually leads to these conclusions: (1) "The Spirit is the principle of evolution" (Creation 100); (2) "The Spirit is the holistic principle ... he creates interactions,... cooperation and community [and] is the 'common Spirit of creation' "; (3) "The Spirit is the principle of individuation. ..." Therefore "selfpreservation and self-transcendence are two sides of the process in which life evolves. They are not mutual contradictions. They complement one another" (ibid. 100). 3 Ibid. action ad extra (cf. The Trinity [n. 5 below] 109 ff.). Thus Moltmann writes: "God withdraws into himself in order to go out of himself. He 'creates' the preconditions for the existence of his creation by withdrawing his presence and his power. ... Nothingness emerges" (Creation 87). For Moltmann "The doctrine of the Shekinah is the logical result of making God's pathos the starting point" (Trinity 30). 5 Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom, The Doctrine of God (New York: Harper & Row, 1981) 19; hereafter abbreviated Trinity. 6 Ibid. 19-20. 7 Ibid. 6. 8 Ibid. 17. 9 Ibid. 16. 10 Ibid. 18. n Ibid. 19. 16 Ibid. 8, emphasis mine. 17 Ibid. 18 Trinity 92. 19 Creation 89, emphasis mine. 20 Ibid. 90.

The Many Faces of Panentheism: An Editorial Introduction

“…This, Moltmann holds, preserves unity (between the three divine modes of God and between God and the world) while it also entails difference (there are three modes as well as God and His creation). However, there is, for Moltmann, an important asymmetry: God is necessary for the non‐divine because everything is in Him, but not the other way around: the existence of the Trinity in its immanence does not depend on the facticity of the world (Molnar ).…”