Jurgen Moltmann’s Theology of Hope and the Task of Public Theology in Ghanaian Context

Francis Appiah-Kubi & Isaac Osei Karikari

Issue: Vol.1  No.5 September 2020  Article 3 pp. 165 – 173
DOI : https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2020095  |   Published online 22nd September 2020.
© 2020 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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This article examines the relevance of theology in public life particularly from the Ghanaian (African) Christian experience in society. The idea of the public relevance of theology has been ably examined by Jurgen Moltmann in the perspectives of his Theology of Hope and the continuous reflections in the “Ethics of Hope”. The eschatological sacrifice of Christ’s story animates in Moltmann the understanding of what particular transformation one must experience when envisaging what the shape of Christianity is in modern society and the task it has to fulfill in the field of social ethics in the Ghanaian social and political history. Critical to the Ghanaian social-political life is to be encountered with is a sub-culture trend that the task for the socio-political and the economic development of the nation-state is the preserve of politics or political activists. The conversation on the rise to action of the Ghanaian Christian to social ethics is now due to the growing trends of poverty, violence, unemployment, corruption, dwindling social and moral order and failing institutions of state. Jurgen Moltmann develops his thoughts in the Ethics of Hope to deliberately project Christian social ethics that is focused on projecting the Bible as the gospel of hope for the people. This paper evaluates Moltmann’s understanding of modern realities of life and how Christians must relate with and what Christian character brings to bear on the positive change in the life of the people.

Keywords: Public Theology; Political theology; modernity; Social ethics; social context.

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Very Rev. Fr. Dr. Francis Appiah-Kubi, Senior Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, former Head of the Department of the Religious Studies Department at the Faculty of Social Science in the KNUST is currently Chairman of Tender Evaluation Panel (Goods and Services–Procurement). He is a Ghanaian Theologian specialized in Ecclesiology and studies in African Traditional Religions.

Rev. Dr. Isaac Osei Karkari is an Ordained Minister of the Methodist Church Ghana, Kumasi diocese, in Ashanti Region. He obtained a Bachelor of Divinity degree and Master of Theology in 2007 and 2013 respectively from the Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon, Accra. He recently completed his PhD at the Department of Religious studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi with a PhD Thesis on “the Praxis of Public Theology in the perspective of the Theological Method of Jürgen Moltmann in the 21st Century Post-secular African society”. His special research areas include ecclesiology and ethical issues facing Christian theology in the African context.

Appiah-Kubi, Francis & Osei Karikari Isaac, “Jurgen Moltmann’s Theology of Hope and the Task of Public Theology in Ghanaian Context.” E-Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 1, no.5 (2020): 165 – 173 https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2020095

© 2020 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Publishers. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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