Public Theology after Niebuhr.doc

mur.csu.edu.au

The paper provides an account of an emerging critique of the implicit assumptions underpinning HR Niebuhr's Christ and Culture typology, particularly those related to Christology, culture, and Christendom. A consideration of this critique along with a sketch of alternative typologies of "Christ and culture", and some traditions of post-Christendom engagement with culture and society, suggests that there are good reasons why we should remove this tool from the public theologian's toolkit. Douglas Hynd has been working as a practical theologian on the boundaries of Church, academia and the public service over the past two decades, as an academic associate of St Mark's National Theological Centre and as public servant working in social policy in the Australian Public Service, drawing substantially upon the Anabaptist tradition of witness and theological reflection.

In this brief essay, various perspectives on the relationship between Christ and culture are reviewed. The moderate evaluation done in this academic paper finds that the first two radical approaches and their practical views are not based on the teachings of the Scriptures, and are also problematic. Although the three views discussed in the Christ above culture view are mostly biblically based, I have seen that when they are implemented, their consequences cause more complications. In Christ and culture, synthesis approaches have seen that the church is more central than Christ, and the paradoxes take Christ out of the world and make Christ culture relations shocking. Those who think that it is possible to transform the world through the redemption of Christ Jesus, attempt to balance the teachings of the Scripture and practical life, but appreciate that the issue of practicality requires a lot of prayer and spiritual maturity.

2012

An analysis of H. Richard Niebuhr\u27s Christ and Culture, from the point-of-view of contemporary sociology of religion

Modern Theology, 2010

While Reinhold Niebuhr's realist political philosophy continues to find advocates in many quarters on account of its explanatory power, his Christian ideals have had difficulty gaining purchase in the material world. The tension between particular political interests and universal moral ideals threatens not only to undermine Niebuhr's efforts to preserve the ethical quality of politics but also his grounds for hope. The source of this problem can be traced to a weakness in the Christological foundations of Niebuhr's Christian realism—specifically to his intentional severing of classical Christology from politics in his appropriation of Augustine's realism. After examining the reasons for this rejection of classical reflections about Jesus, this article explains how the Christology of Niebuhr's favorite early Christian realist, Augustine, makes possible a theological reasoning that expands the social imagination, and promotes a deeply principled and hopeful material transformation, while not forfeiting its critical and explanatory capacity.

The Journal of Theological Studies, 2013

The content of Christian theology is nothing if not complex and nuanced. Faith, in essence, may be something relatively simple; an orientation of the heart, an intention of the will, a determination of religious identity. But as soon as the person of faith takes up the Anselmian challenge to seek understanding of that faith, problems of where to start and how to proceed quickly become acute. Many easy solutions are offered, of course, and most of those are of dubious intellectual quality, short-changing both the integrity of the faith and the veracity of its supposed cognition. They result most often in misinformed fundamentalism or other variants of stifling naïveté. But for many Christian believers seeking to deepen their knowledge and understanding by becoming students of theology there are many worthy guides. This second edition of Anderson's Journey is one of particularly good value. It purports, in its preface, to offer a 'trusty companionship for the journey' as well as to present 'a hearty invitation' to undertake the journey in the first place (p. ix). And in an attempt to make the journey as relaxed and enjoyable as possible the intellectual demands along the way are lightened by the insertion of cartoon comment that can, at times, provide critical insight and reinforcement of a main idea by way of providing a shaft of humorous light. For some, however, they may be more of a sideline distraction, and there are times when it seems that without a deeper knowledge the point of a cartoon may in fact be lost. Still, the overall impression is of a book that deals with complex and heavy topics in a most appealing manner, and succeeding in that on the whole. One very interesting feature is that, although the book has been written and structured in a historically developmental fashion, the preface presents an alternate format whereby the book could be read thematically. By a judicious selection of provided readings, nine discrete theological topics-Faith and Reason, the doctrines of God,

International Journal of Systematic Theology, 2020