Christian Ethics at the Boundary

Feminism and Theologies of Public Life

Karen V. Guth, Karen V. Guth

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781451465709
• eBook ISBN:
  9781451469752
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

In contemporary reflection on Christianity and politics, the work of realist, witness, and feminist theologians has been done in isolation—that is, each school has largely pursued its projects without incorporating the insights of the others. Christian Ethics at the Boundary offers the first approach to public and political theology developed at the boundaries that separate these approaches. Extending the strong contextual work of theologians like Robin W. Lovin and Stanley Hauerwas on one hand, and Kathryn Tanner, Monica A. Coleman, and Mary McClintock Fulkerson on the other, author Karen V. Guth engages the theologies of prominent public theologians Reinhold Niebuhr, John Howard Yoder, and Martin Luther King Jr. to identify new trajectories for future work in Christian ethics. By fostering constructive dialogue between these pivotal public theologians of the twentieth century, their contemporary representatives, and the vanguard voices in feminist and womanist theology, Guth identifies ecclesiology as a new agenda for realist theologians, feminism as a vital form of Christian politics for witness theologians, and "creative maladjustment" as a productive theological stance for all Christian ethicists. In doing so, the work displays an innovative method that enables a vivid, collaborative vision of Christian politics.

2

Churches as Self-Critical and Creative Cultures

A Witness- and Feminist-Inspired Appropriation of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Thought on the Church

“Judgment begins in the house of God.”

—Reinhold Niebuhr^[1]

“I make no apology for being critical of what I love.”^[2] So ends the preface to Reinhold Niebuhr’s collected reflections on his experience in church ministry.^[3] I begin with this quote because it names an aspect of Niebuhr’s identity that is often overlooked in contemporary discussion of Niebuhr: his calling as a minister of the church. This vocation certainly called him beyond the church to active roles in public life and the life of the mind, but Niebuhr began his career as pastor at Bethel Evangelical Church in Detroit, preached continually in churches and university chapels across the country, and was a church activist his entire life. Despite other important roles, Niebuhr always thought of himself first and foremost as a preacher.^[4]

But Niebuhr’s statement about criticism is telling in more ways than one. It highlights his ecclesial role and reflects the theme of self-criticism that both pervades his thought on the church and provides resources not merely for development of a Niebuhrian ecclesiology, but one that challenges those of witness theologians. This is not to say that Niebuhr devoted his theology to ecclesiology. As his witness critics are quick to point out, Niebuhr dedicated most of his theological attention to the politics of nations. Indeed, of the three figures in this study, Niebuhr enjoys arguably the most enduring intellectual influence across the broadest spectrum of audiences. His thought still features prominently in both theological circles and public debate. In addition to his ecclesial vocation, his many contributions include active involvement in politics, cofounding the journal Christianity and Crisis, and teaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. His legacy is visible among groups and individuals across religious and political divides. From “atheists for Niebuhr” to theo-conservatives, from John McCain to President Barack Obama, a variety of groups and leaders still reference Niebuhr’s key ideas about human sin, the need for justice and a balance of power, and the importance of democracy for solving problems.^[5] Although this “social concern” derived from Niebuhr’s “religious context,”^[6] critics view his political activism as an indication of a lack of interest in the church rather than love for it.

Niebuhr’s interest in politics leads some prominent witness theologians to question his contributions to ecclesial reflection. These scholars see a Niebuhr more interested in the fate of Western civilization than the church, more concerned with political responsibility than faithful Christian discipleship, and more preoccupied with justice than a Christian witness of peace. Although Niebuhr understood himself as a Christian apologist, arguing that Christianity offers the only adequate understanding of human beings and their relationship to nature, history, and the divine, these scholars regard “apology” as more of an epithet reserved for those who lift Christian insights out of their proper context—churches and the life of Christian discipleship—and apply them to an arena not of primary concern to Christians—democratic politics and the quest for justice. For these scholars, the proper medium for conveying truth is not an “apology” that demonstrates the relevance of Christian faith to the social, political, and economic realities of the day, but an ecclesially embodied countercultural “witness” over against those realities. But, as Niebuhr’s prefatory remark indicates, there was a time he refused to apologize—when talking about the church.

Nevertheless, critics often claim that Niebuhr’s theology lacks an ecclesiology. Niebuhr’s primary commitment, so the argument goes, is to politics rather than the church. In its most extreme form, this criticism contends that Niebuhr scarcely acknowledges the church’s existence. Niebuhr’s contemporaries made this claim, as do contemporary theologians such as John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, William T. Cavanaugh, Samuel Wells, and Luke Bretherton. More often than not, they make the claim in stark terms. Hauerwas, for example, writes, “For Niebuhr and the social gospelers the subject of Christian ethics was America.”^[7] Or as Cavanaugh puts it: “Ecclesiology is simply absent from Niebuhr’s political theology.”^[8] The boldness of such claims demands scrutiny. How can scholars portray Niebuhr—a child of the church who was ordained to Christian ministry, served as a pastor for 13 years, and educated generations of pastors at a prominent Protestant seminary—as ignoring the church? More importantly, how have such negative characterizations impoverished contemporary ecclesiological reflection?

This witness portrayal of a “liberal” Niebuhr is one product of the witness-realist debate dominating Christian ethics in recent decades, and it still serves as fodder for witness theologians in the current debate. For their part, realists often highlight the theological nature of Niebuhr’s work. For every witness study that decries Niebuhr’s lack of theological prowess, there is a realist volume that highlights the theological contributions of Niebuhr’s thought. Langdon Gilkey reclaims those credentials in his “theological study” of Niebuhr’s life and work.^[9] Larry Rasmussen’s edited volume describes Niebuhr as a “theologian of public life.”^[10] Robin W. Lovin underscores Niebuhr’s theological realism alongside his moral and political realism.^[11] And Scott R. Erwin explores the “theological vision” that pervades Niebuhr’s work.^[12] But none of these studies address Niebuhr’s thought on the church. Not since Essays in Applied Christianity has there been substantial focus on the topic.^[13] Unfortunately, the debate between witness and realist theologians over Niebuhr’s theological credentials neglects his ecclesial contributions.

Reinhold Niebuhr as Christian Witness

This chapter responds to that neglect by engaging both witness and feminist criticism of Niebuhr’s theology and Niebuhr’s thought on the church. It appreciates realist work that highlights Niebuhr’s theological contributions, but regrets that realists have failed to develop Niebuhr’s ecclesiological reflection. It also appreciates the genuine insight in witness claims that Niebuhr’s theology lacks an ecclesiology but regrets hyperbolic formulations that obscure his valuable discussion of the church. The polarization between these two perspectives detracts from Niebuhr’s reflection on the church and important feminist work that—when juxtaposed with Niebuhr’s—reveals new trajectories for Christian ethics that both enhances the constructive reach of Niebuhr’s work and contributes to the internal projects of his witness and feminist critics.

I begin by exploring witness and feminist criticisms of Niebuhr. Despite their differences, witness and feminist criticisms of Niebuhr feature surprising structural similarities. When it comes to the moral potential of religious communities, the criticisms overlap substantively. Witness and feminist theologians share formally similar concerns about Niebuhr’s use of experience as a theological source and his focus on public and political life as his moral context of choice. In addition, witness claims that Niebuhr lacks an ecclesiology map directly onto feminist criticisms that Niebuhr underestimates the moral potential of religious communities. These criticisms identify rich sites for construction in Niebuhr’s theology.

Treating these criticisms as invitations to explore the potential of Niebuhr’s thought, I provide a charitable, close reading of Niebuhr that renders his theology more amenable to witness and feminist agendas. Might Niebuhr’s thought possess resources for an account of the church and its moral capacities that would honor the insights of both witness and feminist theologians? What would the character of such a community be? What virtues would its members embody? What kinds of ethical action would they pursue? Highlighting thematic similarities between Niebuhr’s discussion of churches and theologian Kathryn Tanner’s^[14] exploration of Christianity’s capacity to create “self-critical cultures,” I develop Niebuhr’s reflection on the nature and role of the church into a Niebuhrian account of churches as self-critical cultures engaging in formative practices of contrition that cultivate the virtues of humility and hope, giving rise to creative ethical action.

This account not only identifies new directions for those committed to Niebuhr’s legacy, it also contributes to the projects of both witness and feminist theologians. Realist Robin W. Lovin, for example, perceptively notes that Niebuhr’s realism, in its concern for avoiding cultural accommodation and in its emphasis on cultivating habits of criticism and responsibility, actually resembles certain witness approaches.^[15] My account might be construed as an attempt to develop this insight of Lovin’s into a realist ecclesiology—one that responds to witness criticism but nevertheless maintains its integrity as a realist project. But while I embrace witness convictions that the church’s distinctive identity and practices of moral formation are central for Christian ethics, my account also contributes needed corrections to witness theologies. It d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Publication Credits
• Introduction
• Old Divides and New Trajectories in Christian Ethics
• Churches as Self-Critical and Creative Cultures
• Feminism as Christian Politics
• Christian Ethics for the Creatively Maladjusted
• Conclusion: From the Genuine Community of Argument to the Beloved Community
• Bibliography
• Index