Thorvald Lorenzen’s Resurrection, Discipleship, Justice: Affirming the Resurrection of Jesus Today (2003)
Dr Thorvald Lorenzen is an Australian Baptist pastor-theologian, who was born and spent his childhood in Germany. He did his initial pastoral training (we were contemporaries) at Morling College (then known as the Baptist Theological College of NSW) in the 1960s, and taught Systematic Theology and Ethics for most of his working-life at the Baptist Theological Seminary, R ƒ ¼schlikon, Switzerland. His magnum opus is Resurrection and Discipleship: Interpretive Models, Biblical Reflections, Theological Consequences (1995, 2004) – simplified and abbreviated (and, in my view, enhanced) in this shorter work, Resurrection, Discipleship, Justice. Another useful publication is his Toward a Culture of Freedom: Reflections on the Ten Commandments (2008) [1].
If you’re a ‘layperson’ this 186-page book will be stretching, in two ways. First there are technical terms Lorenzen enjoys – especially ‘ontological’ and ‘the cult’ – which can only really be understood if you’ve done a bit of serious philosophical and theological study (respectively). But don’t worry too much about that: the main ‘jist’ of Thorvald’s message is easily-understood, and indeed is very challenging.
Second, Lorenzen’s not happy with either the traditional/conservative view of the resurrection (too ‘rational’ and ‘back there’ rather than – as with the early followers of Jesus – primarily dynamic, life-changing, and relational) or the liberal view (too focussed on the ‘historical Jesus’, and denying the possibility of any reality which can’t be explained scientifically). The views of William Lane Craig (a conservative) and John Dominic Crossan (a liberal member of the Jesus Seminar) and others’ are examined critically. If you can only read one other theologian Lorenzen likes, start with Jurgen Moltmann. (Lorenzen doesn’t cite Bishop Tom Wright – the most widely-read conservative theologian on the subject of the Resurrection in the non-American English-speaking world – in either of his books on the Resurrection, probably because he did most of his formative thinking before Wright ‘hit the headlines’. But Tom Wright is a rare kind of ‘conservative’ – he also believes that Jesus’ resurrection is all about God establishing God’s justice on the earth).
When we take the New Testament documents at face-value, we are struck by the life-changing realities Jesus’ resurrection addresses – the removal of divisions between ethnic groups, males and females, slaves and masters (Galatians 3:28), and also the ‘death of death’ and redemption of God’s creation. Human society and nature are experiencing labor-pains, waiting for the birth of a New Order where all humans are treated with dignity and respect, and where the creation is renewed. So the essential ‘message’ of Jesus’ resurrection is not so much ‘Was the tomb empty?’ or ‘Did it really happen?’ or ‘Can we – with our Western scientific worldview – believe this literally?’ but how can we be transformed by the reality of this unique event?
Further, this is very important: it was the crucified Jesus who was resurrected. Why was Jesus tortured and killed? Because he stood up to the powers-that-be – religious and political. He had a preferential option for the poor and the marginalized – and when a popular prophet is energized by injustice the rich and powerful get angry. Jesus was intentionally provocative: he healed people on the sabbath even when there was no medical emergency. ‘Where love longs to become an event, there religious laws and practices must be suspended’ (p.74).
Thus the resurrection of Jesus is God’s ‘stamp of approval’ on the main message of Jesus’ life. And we – post Jesus’ resurrection – are called to follow Jesus’ call to justice today, rather than simply reiterate dogma. ‘No theory [of the atonement] says it all and therefore no theory is satisfactory’ (p.86). ‘Atonement is a relational reality’ (p. 87).
Which means it’s not the conservatives or the liberals who ‘get the point’ of Jesus’ life and death and resurrection: it’s the liberation theologians, many of them living in the Third World in the midst of poverty and oppression. Lorenzen commends people like Oscar Romero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dorothee Solle, Gustavo Gutierrez, Jon Sobrino, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela and Robert McAfee Brown as theologians/activists who are closer to the truth on this matter.
Thorvald Lorenzen’s best one-sentence summary: ‘Not individual piety or doctrinal orthodoxy but the concrete following of Jesus in our everyday life is the most eloquent response to the resurrection of Jesus Christ’ (p. 158).
[1] http://victoriaconcordiacrescit.blogspot.com/2008/05/ten-commandments-today.html
More… http://jmm.org.au/articles/22459.htm
My review of N T Wright’s Surprised by Hope – http://jmm.org.au/articles/23610.htm
Rowland Croucher
May 2010
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