With the publication of these two books in 1977, Wolfhart Pannenberg continues to display to his English readership the accessibility, scope and depth of his theological undertaking.
The first book, a translation of his Glaube und Wirklichkeit (1975), consists of ten short essays written in German theological journals from 1961 to 1972, and provides an excellent introduction to Pannenberg’s fertile thought for the non-specialist. The question which brings these diverse essays into the unity of one book is aptly put in the first essay: ‘Has the reality of our life anything at all to do with God?’ (p. 1). For Pannenberg, as for any Christian, if this question cannot be answered affirmatively, then speaking the name of God can have no meaning for us. Contemporary secularization of all of life certainly heightens the problem. But what do we mean when we say ‘reality’? In the second essay, Pannenberg argues that if we were to compress the biblical view of reality into one word, that word would be ‘history’. Such a view of reality as history is based upon the biblical doctrine of God as ‘not only the origin of everything that is present in the world, but also, in his total freedom, the source of everything that is new and unforeseen’ (p. 11).
Within this framework of ‘the whole of reality as history’, Pannenberg then proceeds to address a variety of pertinent problems such as: how the biblical notion of the spiritual origin of all of life coheres with modern biology and physics; the meaning of the image of God; the nature of revelation; the connection between the history of Jesus and J our ‘western’ history; and the revelation of God in modem ‘history. In the final two chapters on nationalism and the relationship between Christian morality and political issues, we have themes which return in the second book.
Human Nature, Election and History contains five lectures presented by Pannenberg during his tour of seminaries and f universities in Britain and the United States during the fall and spring of 1975–6. The book is divided into two parts: ‘The Christian Idea of the Human Person’ and ‘The Doctrine of Election and the History of Christianity’.
Part 1 represents a development of Pannenberg’s anthropology. His thesis is that ‘the eternal value of the individual and of his life has been a most fundamental contribution of Christianity to the development and experience of the structure of human existence’ (p. 14). The not-yet-achieved ‘essence’ of man is to be free. This is his destiny. Therefore ‘human nature’ is the historical realization of that destiny. Man’s destiny is not, however, merely individual, but also communal. The church is the eschatological community and by means of ‘symbolic’ acts testifies to the future promise wherein man’s essence will be realized. The church also has a negative task, and that is to witness to the provisionality (i.e. the not-yet character) of any political and social order.
In Part 2, Pannenberg discusses the doctrine of election in the context of a theology of history. He is critical of the one-sided development of the ‘classical’ doctrine of election as being detemporalized, individualized and predominantly concerned with a ‘transcendent’ salvation. In response to this he offers a ‘historical’ concept of election wherein God elects nations, in history, in order to carry out his purposes. Such an election is conditional in the sense that it calls for an obedient response to the elective task. If the response is not obedient, then there is judgment in history. The most noteworthy instance of disobedience is nationalism, which fails to see that national election is for international responsibility. A united (transnational) catholic church should call nations to fulfill their election. The purpose of a theology of history in such a framework is to discern and interpret God’s elective activity in history.
It is characteris tic of Pannenberg to present creative, well-reasoned theology. These two books are no exception and will be provocative reading for theologians, ministers and interested lay people.
Brian Walsh
Brian Walsh is a Master of Philosophy candidate in theology at the Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto.