Wolfhart Pannenberg

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Wolfhart Pannenberg (born on 2 October 1928 in Stettin (Szczecin, Poland)) is a German Christian theologian.

[edit] Life and views

Pannenberg was baptized as an infant into the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church, but otherwise had virtually no contact with the church in his early years. At about the age of sixteen, however, he had an intensely religious experience he later called his "light experience." Seeking to understand this experience, he began to search through the works of great philosophers and religious thinkers. A high school literature teacher who had been a part of the Confessing Church during World War II encouraged him to take a hard look at Christianity, which resulted in Pannenberg's "intellectual conversion," in which he concluded that Christianity was the best available religious option. This propelled him into his vocation as a theologian.

Central to Pannenberg's theological career has been his defense of theology as a rigorous academic discipline, one capable of critical interaction with philosophy, history, and the natural sciences.

Pannenberg is perhaps best known for Jesus: God and Man in which he constructs a Christology "from below," deriving his dogmatic claims from a critical examination of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. He correspondingly rejects traditional Chalcedonian "two-natures" Christology, preferring to view the person of Christ in light of the resurrection. This focus on the resurrection as the key to Christ's identity has led Pannenberg to defend its historicity.

[edit] Books by Pannenberg in English

1968. Jesus: God and Man. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.
1969. Theology and the Kingdom of God. Westminster Press.
1970. What Is Man? Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
1972. The Apostles' Creed in Light of Today's Questions. Westminster Press.
1977. Faith and Reality. Westminster Press.

[edit] Secondary Literature

Timothy Bradshaw, Trinity and ontology: a comparative study of the theologies of Karl Barth and Wolfhart Pannenberg (Edinburgh: Rutherford House Books, 1988) reprint edn. (Lewiston; Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press for Rutherford House, Edinburgh, 1992)
May 1989, special issue of Zygon devoted to Pannenberg.
Frank Tipler, 1989, "The Omega Point as Eschaton: Answers to Pannenberg's Questions for Scientists," Zygon 24: 217-53. Followed by Pannenberg's comments, 255-71.
--------, 1994. The Physics of Immortality. Doubleday. This work of speculative physics cites 9 books and articles by Pannenberg, and contains 10 index entries under Pannenberg's name.