Wolfhart Pannenberg’s Postfoundational Ecclesiology

Abstract

This article interprets Wolfhart Pannenberg’s ecclesiology through a postfoundational framework. Pannenberg’s postfoundational theological methodology, based around the centrality of sub ratione Dei, is a dialectical relationship between the ‘from below’ movement of context (‘true infinite’) and the ‘from above’ movement of universal truth (Trinity) which reflects the differentiation-in-unity found in the immanent and economic Trinity. Accordingly, this article argues, Pannenberg’s ecclesiology, including his understanding of church essence (its role in creation and its constitutive members) and its activities (baptism, Eucharist, ministry) displays postfoundational relations between the particular and the universal bridging the divide between the secular and the sacred, the past, present, and future, and individual and community. In the discussion, concepts such as Christ’s ‘person,’ ‘transignification,’ Christocentric election, and social trinitarianism are used to move the discussion past modern dualism and postmodern relativism and toward postfoundational relationality.