What is man? Sociology, psychology, and market research all answer the question differently. Idealism, Marxism, and Fascism likewise provide their distinctive answers. The distinguished author of Theology of Hope here examines the various possibilities, not simply from a theoretical standpoint but in terms of how the divergent conceptions actually work out in concrete human experience. He takes an especially hard look at those views which seem to exalt man beyond measure, almost as some kind of an idol.
Professor Moltmann does not call for a retreat into inner solitude. His effort is rather to understand man in tne light of faith: God is the measure of man. The Christian view of man takes its bearings from the Man of Golgotha: the Crucified Christ is the One who embodies the new humanity, fashioned after God’s will, which must live out Its life in an inhuman situation antithetical to the will of God.