Volf: Recently, Ernst Bloch's Das Prinzip
Hoffnung was translated into Croatian. Where do you see parallels and
differences between Bloch's book and your Theology of Hope?
Moltmann: Commonality and parallels between the two books exist wherever
Bloch thinks Jewish or messianic. His deepest roots, I believe, lie in the
messianism of the Jewish tradition from which he unconsciously lives. This is
especially obvious in his first book, Geist der Utopie. It ends with a
prayer. Later he abandoned these religious-messianic overtones and sometimes
appeared to be banally atheistic. We clarified our differences once in this way:
In Das Prinzip Hoffnung Bloch speaks of transcending, but without
transcendence; in Theology of Hope I speak of transcending with
transcendence.
Bloch has written a book about atheism and Christianity [Atheism in
Christianity (Continuum, 1972)]; it first appeared with the subtitle "Only
an Atheist Can Be a Good Christian." I mentioned that it should be the other
way around: only a Christian can be a good atheist. Bloch then used that
statement as the second subtitle of his book. He meant that only an atheist
who does not worship false religious and economic gods can be a good
Christian. I meant that only a Christian who believes in the crucified Jesus
is free from the pressure to create gods and idols for himself. On this issue
Bloch and I have come near to each other.
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