Christology on the via postmoderna: Moltmann, Derrida, process philosophy and postcolonial theory

A postmodern reconfiguration of Christian theology is to come and will be-come in the shifting process into the third millennium of Christianity. The theological-philosophical configurations of protestant Christianity have their beginning in the Reformation of Martin Luther, who was enlightened by William of Ockham's via moderna, and have consummated their ending in G. Hegel's speculative system, with the worry about the rise of atheism and the anticipation of the spirit of resurrection. In the face of the modern nihilistic abyss and apocalyptic ecological catastrophe, this dissertation argues that a via postmoderna should be considered. An investigation of a specific triad of three postmodern christologies will inaugurate the articulation of the christologia via postmoderna.;On the one hand, J. Moltmann's messianic christology is "postmodern" in its self-distinction from ancient metaphysical and modern anthropological christologies, and attempts to reconnect human and natural histories in the eschatological cosmic horizon. Asserting "Christian messianicity," it initiates a postmodern horizontal christological reconfiguration, but cannot avoid the anticipation of the final coming of an ultimate Christian empire. Such eschatological hope may only defer immediate actions on, for instance, the ecological crisis. On the other hand, in its Jewish "atheist" counter-thinking, J. Derrida's poststructuralist religious philosophy advocates "apophatic messianicity" by asserting something always to come and never to be comprehended. It thus respects and reserves the mystery of absolute otherness, while unsettling and postponing any apocalyptic coming of Christian eternal dominance.;A Whiteheadian process christology could be viewed as the third way, entering the unresolved aporia between Christian and apophatic messianicity. With its ecological, organic relationality, process philosophy suggests a postmodern reconstruction refusing the modern separation of subject and object, mind and body, human and nature, God and world. Recognizing the divine empowerment of the world, process theology begins to collaborate with postcolonial theory in a counter-imperial christological articulation of the postmodern. The coalition of process incarnation and postcolonial hybridity will encourage the adventurous weaving of global interrelatedness, that is, to come and will be-come, lured by the advent of Christ.