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7 months agoRest in peace, Jürgen Moltmann. This picture was my final interaction with him back in 2019 after a panel at @uniofstandrews discussing human suffering and divine remembrance.
Completing my PhD years earlier at that same university on an interdisciplinary study of trauma, its inseparable influence on the three parts of human dynamics (body, brain, spirit), and how that influence frames our conception of reality, Professor Moltmann was kind enough to communicate with me both in-writing and in-person… something he didn’t need to do with a random PhD student interested in advancing a small portion of his thoughts in more interdisciplinary, scientific ways.
I am grateful for Professor Moltmann’s role in helping expand and refine my thinking on the theological-front of suffering and divine/human remembrance; always positively encouraging me to think outside of the box and pushing me further into the neurocognitive and social psychological interplay with the memory of suffering.
For being one of the foremost thinkers and highly-regarded theologians to ever live, he was ALWAYS open to dialogue and ALWAYS the first person to say he doesn’t have the FINAL answer. He rather looked at his work (and encouraged students all over to look at theirs) as a simple contribution to a broad field of study populated by extraordinarily intelligent people continually led by the Spirit in new ways. For many in his position of notoriety, he didn’t have to do any of that or be so open or kind.
Saying we lost a giant is an understatement. His 98 years on this earth will definitely live on not only for the rest of this age, but the one to come.