Eberhard Jüngel and Wolfhart Pannenberg as Interpreters of the Doctrine of Justification (original) (raw)

The Lutheran-Roman Catholic Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (JDDJ), signed in 1999, remains one of the most significant ecumenical achievements. Furthermore, it paves the way towards the ecumenical celebration of 500 years of Reformation in 2017. However, the declaration awakened strong criticism, especially during the preparation and publication phase, and has to some extent continued to do so since that time. 1 Professor (em.) Eberhard Jüngel, a United Church (Reformed-Lutheran) theologian, started wide discussion among German university theologians which led to a critical statement, signed by 160 German professors. Surprisingly enough, Jüngel himself did not, in the end, sign the statement but pointed out that JDDJ gives an opportunity to move beyond doctrinal judgments to continue the work with these questions. 2 I would like to investigate Jüngel's (b. 1934) understanding of the doctrine of justification and to ask why he arrived at a critical position whereas another noteworthy German systematic theologian, internationally even more famous than Jüngel, the Lutheran Wolfhart Pannenberg (b. 1928) considered the criticism too sharp and saw in it echoes of the old controversy theology model of building Protestant identity in a negative way, through distancing itself from Rome. According to Pannenberg, the criticism did not do justice to the text of JDDJ. He asks: " How can anyone who has read the Joint Declaration make such ungrounded claims? " 3 In order to uncover the points of departure in the thought of these theologians, in addition to their confessional backgrounds, let us first analyze the arguments in their theologies of justification and compare their positions before drawing conclusions regarding the broader theological and ecumenical implications of their positions.