EASTERN CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS IN THE CHRISTOLOGY OF KARL RAHNER AND JUERGEN MOLTMANN: CONTEMPORARY TRENDS IN CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT THOUGHT FROM AN ORTHODOX PERSPECTIVE
Abstract
Among contemporary Roman Catholic theologians, no one comes closer to the Christology of mainstream patristic tradition than Karl Rahner. And from the Protestant side of Christian theology, Jurgen Moltmann offers fresh insights to the Doctrine of God in his Trinitarian thought and Theology of the Cross. This dissertation will examine some Eastern Orthodox elements in the theology of these two contemporary systematic theologians. Chapter One reviews the major literary responses to traditional Chalcedonian Christology, when the world commemorated the 1500th Anniversary of the Fourth Ecumenical Council in 1951. Through the writings of modern theologians such as Rahner and Moltmann, new methods of approaching Christology "from below" might necessarily be the desired rapprochement between post-Chalcedonian developments and modern advances in Christology. Chapter Two examines the Christian Theology of Creation, as it is intimately bound to the Incarnation of the Logos and His work of Redemption. Our conclusion in this chapter reveals the intimate connection between Creation, Incarnation, and Redemption, and how all three activities may be seen as one movement of God and man. Chapter Three introduces the theology of Karl Rahner. We attempt to show how Rahner is faithful to the Chalcedonian model, even in his alliegence to a Cyrillian interpretation of hypostatic union. In Chapter Four we examine the Christology of Jurgen Moltmann. Our study shows how Moltmann opts for replacing traditional Theopaschite language with his own idea of "patricompassionism." The concluding chapter examines two theological principles that are inherent in Rahner and Moltmann, and form the foundation for a thorough understanding of their systems from the perspective of Eastern Christian thought. These two theological principles and perichoresis and enhypostasia. Finally, this dissertation concludes with a review of Rahner and Moltmann, and precisely where their Christologies converge with Eastern Orthodox thought.
Subject Area
Theology
Recommended Citation
HAVRILAK, GREGORY CHARLES, "EASTERN CHRISTIAN ELEMENTS IN THE CHRISTOLOGY OF KARL RAHNER AND JUERGEN MOLTMANN: CONTEMPORARY TRENDS IN CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT THOUGHT FROM AN ORTHODOX PERSPECTIVE" (1986). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8615720.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8615720
