Identity,Relevance and the Crucified God

Abstract

The article begins by looking briefly at the identity-relevance dialectic in Moltmann's The Crucified God and the theological context that produced it. It then considers our current situation, very different from forty years ago, of a multi-religious Australia within a desecularised world. The article poses the question: how are Christians to maintain both identity and relevance, in this new context? The author considers the contribution of a recent article by Ulrike Link-Wieczorek, and draws the conclusion that Moltmann's identification of trinitarian thinking with the theology of the cross continues to be valid, and further, that this trinitarian theology of the cross constitutes the “true Christian universalism”. Both identity and relevance are best maintained by placing cross at the heart of our understanding of the Trinity, and the Trinity at the heart of what we say in conversations with adherents of other religious communities. The acknowledgement of the crucified God is an indispensible element in such conversations.