{"id":4521,"date":"2015-04-08T14:44:21","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T14:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=4521"},"modified":"2015-04-08T14:44:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T14:44:21","slug":"civility-and-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/civility-and-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Civility and Confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my view, books like \u201cSpirit of the Cities\u201d and \u201cThe Bible, Justice and Public Theology\u201d don\u2019t offer a clear vision for the role of public theology. But with the reading of Ross Douthat\u2019s Bad Religion: How we became a Nation of Heretics[1]<\/a>,<\/span> I can envision the robust and essential role of the public theology.<\/p>\n

Douthat\u2019s first two chapters are a history of the American Protestant and Catholic Churches in the early- and mid-twentieth century. With the gruesome reality of world wars, alternatives were needed to the unjustifiable over-optimism of modernism; that alternative was the resurgence Christian orthodoxy. Douthat calls this \u201cneo-evangelicalism\u201d.<\/p>\n

What was the catalyst of such theological renewal and church growth? Part of the story was certainly the post-WWII context: no one could believe a utopian society was around the corner. The culture recognized again that there were deep injustices and evil in the world. The American public was ready for an alternative way of life; there was a religious openness, but answers would not likely have been found in orthodoxy without the influence of public theologians. But because of them, for a few decades American society had a resurgence of Christian belief.<\/p>\n

Douthat goes on to describe how that brief era was lost.\u00a0\u00a0 One of the reasons offered for the heretical movement away from orthodoxy was a shift toward political and social liberalism starting in the 60s. Liberalism in society felt like untethered progress, but applied to church doctrine there was a rejection of the inerrancy of scripture, acceptance of ordaining homosexuals, and even questions about the divinity of Christ. The slide into liberal thought wasn\u2019t just for the mainline denominations but evangelicals likewise lost their convictions, or rather traded them for \u201cunbiblical and self-serving influences within Christianity itself: \u201cprosperity Gospel\u201d preachers (a la Joel Osteen); Christological revisionists in the professoriate and the media; anodyne \u201cspiritualists\u201d like Oprah and Deepak Chopra; and ideologues who have wrongly appropriated Christianity for political ends (on both the left and the right).\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

But I\u2019d like to reflect on that brief mid-century resurgence in orthodoxy. Wystan Hugh Auden\u2014poet and prolific writer, Reinhold Niebuhr\u2014theologian and professor, Billy Graham\u2014America\u2019s evangelist, Fulton Sheen\u2014an American Bishop and television host\u2014as well as Martin Luther King\u2014civil rights leader, all with their various audiences each counting in the tens of millions were all a part this Renaissance. They made orthodoxy relevant to the public and a part of the public discourse. Niebuhhr realism, deeply rooted in the biblical narrative, was a welcome alternative to the unfounded optimism of modernism. Graham\u2019s unheard of popularity took evangelicals out of the Bible belt religious fringe and into the mainstream. He walked the tension of advocating conservative theological positions while helping evangelicals become active in addressing the day\u2019s social problems.[3]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Bishop Sheen had a television audience of nearly 30 million who regularly listened to him take biblical concepts and apply them to real life. These men, coming from very different theological camps, seemed to transcend their heritage and gained a much broader audience. MLK became a beacon for peaceful change to the civil laws that discriminated against African-Americans, all by means of thoughtfully applying theology to public and political discourse. Like Jesus, he had a posture of compassion but wasn\u2019t afraid to throw people out of the temple either.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m impressed by two values that surface from their example. Generally they leveraged a moment in public awareness that something deeper, more substantive was needed. These men stepped up with civility and confidence. By civility I mean the ability to have a broad reach, an attitude where a discussion is encouraged, where those who are different aren\u2019t enemies, but friends\u2014friends that respect different convictions. Graham, for example, \u201cstruck a delicate balance between Evangelical rigor and openhanded ecumenism\u2026 between warnings about God\u2019s justice and promises of God\u2019s all-encompassing love.\u201d Likewise was \u201cMartin Luther King\u2019s ability to use the language of Scripture to break down ideological barriers and transcend partisan divides\u201d.[4]<\/a> These men also have a lot to teach us about confidence. None of these men were anti-intellectual; each one held a deep orthodoxy, they were well-versed and willing to go public with their faith. I recently saw an old Woody Allen Show segment, where Woody Allen was interviewing Billy Graham on his show. Allen, with wit and a bit of snobbery, asked Rev. Graham about pre-marital sex. Allen, in the age of free sex, said something like I couldn\u2019t imagine buying a car without driving it around the block for a few times. Rev Graham simply and clearly talked about what scripture say about premarital sex and marriage and of course he also talked about God\u2019s love for Woody Allen.<\/p>\n

Where are today\u2019s public theologians? Where are the men and women who capture the public\u2019s imagination with orthodoxy \u2013 who draw millions away from heresy and back toward God? I guess it\u2019s up to all of us. But I\u2019d love to see another Niebuhr, King or Graham.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Ross Douthat, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics<\/em>, Reprint ed. (New York: Free Press, 2013), 1.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> David Wilezol, \u201cBad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics,\u201d Washington Times<\/em>, May 18, 2012, accessed April 7, 2015, http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2012\/may\/18\/book-review-bad-religion\/?page=all.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Douthat, 37.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, 53.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my view, books like \u201cSpirit of the Cities\u201d and \u201cThe Bible, Justice and Public Theology\u201d don\u2019t offer a clear vision for the role of public theology. But with the reading of Ross Douthat\u2019s Bad Religion: How we became a Nation of Heretics[1], I can envision the robust and essential role of the public theology. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,7,599],"class_list":["post-4521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-douthat","tag-public-theology","cohort-lgp5"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4522,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521\/revisions\/4522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}