Living God, renew and transform us’ – 26th General Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, in Leipzig, Germany, 29 June to 07 July 2017

The former president of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), Prof. Jerry Pillay, invited Prof Jürgen Moltmann to speak at the General Council of the WCRC in Leipzig, Germany, from 29th June to 9th July 2017. In a special session on Theology, he was requested to focus on the future of Reformed Theology from the perspective of the theme of the General Council, Living God, renew and transform us.This article aims at exploring the theme ‘Living God, renew and transform us’ under the following headings: the living God and the gods of death, the desolation of atheism and the sun of righteousness, just law and the fullness of life. The author relates the ‘God of Life’ to a ‘theology embracing life’. He links the ‘gods of death’ to racism, capitalism and terrorism in which we ‘encounter a new religion of death’. He points out that Christianity is a religion of joy in God and sets out to illustrate this with selected biblical texts. In the section ‘The desolation of atheism’, the author argues that modern atheism offers a ‘reduced life’. To make his point, he refers to his own personal experience and the theological ‘protest atheism’ which arose in the 19th century. The author concludes by stating that atheism offers nothing positive. In the final section, ‘The sun of righteousness, just law and the fullness of life’, the author addresses issues of justice. In referring to the Reformation doctrine on justification, the author states that the justification of victims requires confessio oris, rising up from humiliation and forgiveness.http://www.hts.org.zaam2018Dogmatics and Christian Ethic