This post continues selections from Moltmann's The Crucified God. (Note 1) Shown at right is Moltmann's first major book, Theology of Hope, published in 1964.
"Many abandon the study of theology or their ministry as priests and pastors, and their religious orders, and study sociology, psychology or revolution, or work amongst the wretched of our society, because they feel that in this way they can contribute more to solving the conflicts of this fragmented society. The old theology which they have learnt seems to them like a fossil surviving from a previous age. Fundamentalism fossilizes the Bible into an unquestionable authority. Dogmatism freezes living Christian tradition solid. The habitual conservatism of religion makes the liturgy inflexible, and Christian morality - often against its better knowledge and conscience - becomes a deadening legalism." (8)
"The attention of many was drawn by the gospel and the frequently suppressed revolutionary traditions in Christianity, to the sufferings of the oppressed and abandoned in the world; and they began to have a passionate social and political commitment... For them, their total questioning of the church and theology arose from their apprehension of the 'cross of the present time' in the situation of those who in this society live in the shadow of the cross, and from the wish to take this cross of reality upon themselves and to live in solidarity with and for these others. This exodus from a blinded society, which has psychologically and socially repressed its pain at the suffering in the world, and pushes people who suffer to the fringes of society, in order to withdraw undisturbed into its own small groups, consequently led to an exodus from a church which did not dissociate itself with sufficient determination from these inner and outward defense-mechanisms of its social environment, but enjoyed the religious tolerance of a frigid society, and which, in order to maintain itself in being, has made a dishonorable peace with society and become sterile. (8-9)
It is our nature to seek peace and comfort, and to shield and protect ourselves from the unpredictable, the unpleasant, the chaotic, as well as that which is merely different from ourselves. Without intentional correction, the institutional life of churches will evolve more toward self-serving priorities and protectionist practices that effectively isolate churches and therefore inhibit awareness of the outside world. This has the further effect of making it increasingly difficult for insiders to understand and relate to those who are different, and makes it easier to attach a negative spiritual or moral judgment to any type of divergence from familiar norms.
"Under pressure to give a public demonstration of the relevance of theology to the problems of society and of individuals in it, and to manifest in a new form its relationship to a changed world, a long series of theological structures of great integrity were created. All of them provided Christian theology with the characteristics of a relationship to the surrounding world which was to make it relevant. There was existentialist theology, hermeneutic, ontological, cultural, social, indigenous, religious and political theology, and also the theology of secularization, of revolution, of liberation, etc. Because the relevance of Christian theology had become uncertain, there was and is an attempt to supply Christian theology with new categories of fundamental theology in the spirit and the circumstances of the present day." (10)
"Similar movements to those in theology have come into being in the churches themselves. The more the perceptive members of the church feel themselves threatened by the increasing social isolation of their churches, the more they seek in practice the relevance of the Christian life 'for the world', 'for others,' and solidarity with man in his threatened and betrayed humanity. A church which cannot change in order to exist for the humanity of man in changed circumstances becomes ossified and dies. It becomes an insignificant sect on the margin of a society undergoing rapid social change. People ask themselves what difference it makes to belong to this church or not. ... Thus the ancient religious commitment of the church, that of arousing, strengthening and maintaining faith, has been supplemented since as early as the nineteenth century and even more at the present day by charitable work, social commitment in racial and class struggles, involvement in development and and revolts against economic and racist tyranny. 'If anyone wants to become a Christian, don't send him into the churches, but into the slums. There he will find Christ.' So people say." (12)
This tendency, however, can have the effect of emptying Christian commitment of its distinctive identity.
"If social and political commitment is necessary, what is 'Christian' about that? If religious commitment is necessary for fulfilling the religious needs in a society, what is 'Christian' about that? In the critical theological thought in which a theologian uses and applies the critical scholarship developed since the Enlightenment, as a historical critic in exegesis, as an ideological critic in dogmatics, as a social critic with regard to the church, and in the political commitment which brings a Christian into solidarity with a non-Christian, why does one believe? Or is one no longer Christian, so that belief or unbelief make no difference here? It is not criticism that makes one a Christian, because others practise it. It is not social commitment on behalf of the poor and wretched, for this is fortunately found amongst others. It is not rebellion against injustice that makes one a Christian, for other rebel, and they often protest with more determination against injustice and discrimination than Christians. Is it necessary to give a Christian justification for these actions at all, or is it sufficient to do what is reasonable and humane? But what is reasonable and humane?" (13-14)
"When a Christian community feels obliged to empty itself in certain social and political actions, it must take care that its traditional religious and political identity is not exchanged for a new religious and political identity ... Otherwise a church which, seeking for an identity and not preserving its distinctiveness, plunges into a social and political movement, once again becomes the 'religion of society'... But can a Christian community or church ever become the 'political religion' of its existing or future society, without forgetting the man from Nazareth who was crucified, and losing the identity it has in his cross? Moreover... identity with the crucified Christian can be demonstrated only by a witnessing non-identification with the demands and interests of society. ... Where solidarity is achieved, this distinction must still be observed. It is a criticism of the traditional solidarity of the established churches with authority, law and order in society. It is also a criticism of the attempts to establish solidarity with democratic and socialist forces... because the cross enables people to criticize and stand back from the partial historical realities and movements which they have idolized and made absolute." (17)
"In many Christian churches, polarizations have come into being between those who see the essence of the church in evalgelization and the salvation of souls, and those who see it in social action for the salvation and liberation of real life. But in Christian terms evangelization and humanization are not alternatives. Nor are inner repentance and a change in situations and circumstances. Nor are the 'vertical dimension' of faith and the 'horizontal dimension' of love for one's neighbor and political change. Nor are 'Jesuology' and christology, the humanity and the divinity of Jesus. Both coincide in his death on the cross. Anyone who makes a distinction here, enforces alternatives and calls for a parting of the ways, in dividing the unity of God and man in the persons, the imitation and the future of Christ." (22)
"These alternatives are equally absurd from the point of view of practice. Evangelization would lead either to a crisis of relevance or to an inevitable involvement in the social and political problems of society. Beginning with preaching, one is then faced with questions of community organization, the education of children and work for the sick and poor. The humanization of social circumstances leads either to a crisis of identity, or inevitably to evangelization or pastoral care. Beginning with the improvement of social conditions in the poverty-stricken ares and liberation from political oppression, one is then faced with the question how to arouse faith and conquer the structure of servility in their minds... Thus both must be done at the same time. Personal, inner change without a change in circumstances and structures is an idealist illusion, as though man were only a soul and not a body as well. But a change in external circumstance without inner renewal is a materialist illusion, as though man were only a product of his social circumstances and nothing else. (22-23)
"The true front on which the liberation of Christ takes place does not run between soul and body or between persons and structures, but between the powers of the world as it decays and collapses into ruin, and the powers of the Spirit and of the future... There is no vertical dimension of faith opposed to a horizontal dimension of political love, for in every sphere of life the powers of the coming new creation are in conflict with the powers of a world structure which leads to death." (24)
"Christian theology finds its identity as such in the cross of Christ. Christian life is identified as Christian in a double process of identification with the crucified. His cross distinguishes belief from unbelief and even more from superstition. Identification with the crucified Christ alienates the believer from the religious and ideologies of alienation, from the 'religion of fear' and the ideologies of revenge. Christian theology finds its relevance in hope, thought out in depth and put into practice, in the kingdom of the crucified Christ, by suffering in 'the sufferings of this present time', and makes the groaning of the creation in travail its own cry for God and for freedom. Jesus was folly to the wise, a scandal to the devout and a disturber of the peace in the eyes of the mighty. That is why he was crucified. If anyone identifies with him, this world is 'crucified' to him, as Paul said. He becomes alienated from the wisdom, religion and power politics of his society. The crucified Christ became the brother of the despised, abandoned and oppressed. And this is why brotherhood with the 'least of his brethren' is a necessary part of the brotherhood with Christ and identification with him. Thus Christian theology must be worked out amongst these people and with them." (24)
NOTES
Note 1: I am condensing Moltmann's train of thought at a rate of less than one paragraph per page - here 11 paragraphs - with an occasional interpretive comment. I apologize to those who even yet will find this too long and tedious, and others who through close scrutiny may find that I leave out significant points of the logical development. That being said, I strongly feel that it is worth the effort to mine gems of theological thought from Moltmann's work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jurgen Moltmann. The Crucified God. 1974. Harper & Rowe, Publishers. (First Fortress Press edition published in 1993.)