Resurrection in the Perspective of Systematic Theology Centering on Modern Protestant Systematic Theologians: Barth, Pannenberg, Moltmann

Today people are very interested in death. However, this interest is an expression of concerns about what kind of life to live now. Also, this interest is an expression of the desire for life after death. In Christian theology, discussions about death or life after death are related to the theological locus of resurrection. This paper focuses on representative systematic theologians who have discussed the resurrection of Jesus Christ: Karl Barth(1886-1968), Wolfhart Pannenberg(1928-2014), and Juergen Moltmann(1926-present). It attempts to take a closer look at how each of them deal with resurrection within each own theological system. Barth, Pannenberg, and Moltmann all acknowledge the possibility of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They accept both the empty tomb event and the appearance event of the resurrected Jesus Christ as recorded in the Bible and assert the possibility of resurrection. For all of them, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not fiction, a lie, imagination, or fantasy at all. However, the perspectives from which they approach the resurrection of Jesus Christ are different, and those perspectives are closely related to each own respective theological methodology. Due to differences in theological methodology, the degree to which each person understands the reality, historicity, and factuality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ appears to be different. There are many other detailed topics related to resurrection, but this paper focuses on the possibility of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Although they discussed more about the meaning of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is not discussed in this paper due to space limitations. Lastly, this paper looks at some implications of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and briefly address what a life to hope for resurrection is like.