Theological Journal – January 13 Moltmann Monday

“That is why faith, wherever it develops into hope, causes not rest but unrest, not patience but impatience. It does not calm the unquiet heart, but is itself this unquiet heart in man. Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, to contradict it. Peace with God means conflict with the world, for the goad of the promised future stabs inexorably into the flesh of every unfulfilled present.” (Theology of Hope)


An inadequate understanding of faith has plagued American Christianity more than anything else except the American Exceptionalism/white supremacist nationalism conflation of church and state. Intellectualistic and propositional views of faith lack the organic connection with hope Moltmann asserts here. And that lack allows apathy/quietism, on the one hand, and accommodation to our culture, on the other hand, to grow and flourish in the church. Let us take these words to heart this Moltmann Monday.