Reinhold Niebuhr and Power
I have been looking (briefly) at two personalities in Theological history which might give me some indication as to how Christianity - Following Columba - might be articulated in the real world of politics and culture. The first is 16th Century Martin Luther, who was an monk and theologian and became enraged (if that is the right word!) about the abuse of Christianity by a Church that jealously guarded its power and control and used these to raise finance for its own purposes which had little to do with the Kingdom. Eventually he managed to gain the attention of the political powers in Germany despite the possible risk that he would arrested and executed. And so the Reformation began for real. Now I am no reformation historian, but I gather that there was a struggle between the secular powers in Germany and Papal authority into which Luther injected his polemic.
Also I have been recapturing in my mind something of a 20th Century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr whose writing was principally about Christian realism. For some it was an attack on liberalism... the illusion that the task of Christianity was to create a just society invested with Christian values. Not that he was wishing to expunge that from Protestant theology, but that a wholesale adherence to it was deluded and dangerous. The reality was, for Niebuhr, that politics is about power and influence and the forces waged to dominate. Politics was not about 'values'. In fact, there were times when he saw all institutions as being determined by these forces, including the Church. Christian realism was about recognising that. The over simplification of Niebuhr's thining leads to the well worne view that the decisions we actually make are always about the lesser of evils in the political sphere. However, be that as it may. From this, we can see that the Cross is the criticism of all activities that seem to have the mask of 'betterment' but are in fact about power.
Now the reason I attempt to summarise these two giants is that there was a passion in each of them for the truth. One of the essential Christian resources for addressing the truth is in prayer. So to move into prayer at its depth is to move into a place of discernment where I begin to have the spiritual 'equipment' to discern the truth.
+Martin
Argyll and The Isles.
Also I have been recapturing in my mind something of a 20th Century theologian Reinhold Niebuhr whose writing was principally about Christian realism. For some it was an attack on liberalism... the illusion that the task of Christianity was to create a just society invested with Christian values. Not that he was wishing to expunge that from Protestant theology, but that a wholesale adherence to it was deluded and dangerous. The reality was, for Niebuhr, that politics is about power and influence and the forces waged to dominate. Politics was not about 'values'. In fact, there were times when he saw all institutions as being determined by these forces, including the Church. Christian realism was about recognising that. The over simplification of Niebuhr's thining leads to the well worne view that the decisions we actually make are always about the lesser of evils in the political sphere. However, be that as it may. From this, we can see that the Cross is the criticism of all activities that seem to have the mask of 'betterment' but are in fact about power.
Now the reason I attempt to summarise these two giants is that there was a passion in each of them for the truth. One of the essential Christian resources for addressing the truth is in prayer. So to move into prayer at its depth is to move into a place of discernment where I begin to have the spiritual 'equipment' to discern the truth.
+Martin
Argyll and The Isles.
posted by Martin at 7:14 pm
1 Comments:
The downside of Luther's engagement with the corruption of papal authority is the rise of the notion of the 'national' church .Which in Germany even now is propped up financially with the church tax. At least the popes were claiming to mediate divine power in a Universal church. I'm thinking of Andrew Collier's piece in 'Inspires' a few months ago as illustrating a sad provincial( and racist) mindset about the nature of the church.Simone saw clearly that the child of God is a member of the 'local church' and the Universal church.Province and Nation shouldn't come into it. We can and should as Christians influence the structures of society politically and economically by resistance as well as engagement.
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