莫特曼論「教會與使命」

Jürgen Moltmann’s “Church and Mission”

Andres S. TANG

The early Moltmann proposed that the mission of the Church is not to expand its territory geographically but the Kingdom of God. This paper tries to give an analysis of this understanding in his early writing Theology of Hope. Moltmann understood the mission of the Church as a kind of daily praxis instead of private, interior practice without any public and political significance. For him the Church is the “Exodus Church” which is on its way toward the Kingdom of God. Its task and destiny are defined by this eschatological Kingdom instead of by this modern society. As the future of this world, the Kingdom of God is promised to be fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this sense, the Church, as Christian believers who are called by Christ to be disciples, has to transform the world in every aspect of its life in the society corresponding to the Kingdom of God. It is clear that Moltmann understood the mission of the Church in a broad sense which, however, is not opposed to the narrow sense of mission that emphasizes the task of evangelization. Moltmann reminded us that the mission of the Church in the modern society is not for its own sake but for the Kingdom of God, and is accomplished through the praxis of daily discipleship in a multi-layered society.