This study is an exposition and analysis of Wolfhart Pannenberg’s doctrine of reconciliation as it appears in his three volume <i>Systematic Theology</i>.  It suggests Pannenberg’s doctrine of reconciliation is best approached by bearing in mind its three most salient characteristics, all of which are inter-dependent, and make the essential tenets of his account transparent: Divine action, history and divine faithfulness–reconciliation as ‘holding fast’ to creation. While the principal focus of the study will be the careful analysis of Pannenberg’s doctrine of reconciliation, this bears upon his understanding of the relationship between the immanent and economic Trinity. So without claiming to be an exhaustive study of this doctrine per se, our exposition of the <i>actual unfolding </i>of his account of God’s reconciling acts makes it well-suited to address some questions about the relationship between the immanent and economic Trinity in <i>ST.</i> Further, in the course of the material Pannenberg’s attention turns time and again <i>both </i>to the saving movements of the Trinitarian God in history and to the ‘commerce and communion’ generated between him and his creatures. The task and challenge of marking out these patterns of encounter so that God’s actions are found to <i>include</i> creatures exerts a great deal of force over Pannenberg’s formulations.  The study is required therefore to consider how Pannenberg’s presentation shapes one’s understanding of specific, temporal instances of creaturely ‘commerce and communion’.  Doing so reveals how Pannenberg works to demonstrate how god’s reconciling action <i>includes</i> human actions, how the particularity and independence of human creatures are not set aside but <i>transformed</i>.  In short, as Pannenberg’s doctrine of reconciliation marks out God’s action in the world as the true Infinite, it issues an invitation to consider how such a God extends himself in reconciling love to his creatures so that their finite creatureliness is at every turn affirmed and found to be in the end ‘good’.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aberdeen University, 2009. / Title from web page (viewed on Oct. 5, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.