Reconsidering the Doctrine of God

With the appearance in the late 1990s of Wolfhart Pannenberg'sthree-volume Systematic Theology, the fully developed system of one of the mostsignificant theologians of the 20th century became readily accessible. Asa consequence, the time is ripe for an examination of various aspects ofthe proposals that Pannenberg has developed over the last thirty-plusyears. On coming to Pannenberg's work, one might easily feel overwhelmed. He has, after all, made substantive proposals on such varying topics as, on the one hand, the historical basis of the resurrection and, on theother, the proper relationship between science and theology. However, there is a common theme which underlies virtually all of Pannenberg'stheologi-cal work: the Christian doctrine of God. In this project, Gutenson examines Pannenberg's theology with an eyeparticularly to his doctrine of God as laid out in his various theologicalwritings. An initial review of this subject matter suggests that such an assessment can becarried out around five major themes. The first theme deals withPannenberg's proposal that the concept of the Infinite become the primarycategory in articulation of the doctrine of God. The second theme, suggested above, is the result of Pannenberg's inter-action with thephysical sciences and is expressed by his proposal that God should beconceptualized as a field of power. The third theme concernsPannenberg-'s articulation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. Thefourth is expressed by Pannenberg's claim that God is the power of thefuture and the closely related notion, prevalent in Pannenberg's writings, of an ontological priority of the future. Finally, and in light of theprevious proposals, Pannenberg makes a number of substantive proposalsconcerning the manner in which the divine attributes should bearticulated, and this will serve as a fifth coordinating theme. Theexamination of these themes, then, will provide us access to Pannenberg'stheology through its central focus: the doctrine of God>