Counterattack

In the 1960s mainstream Protestants in America were swept up in such social crusades as civil rights and opposition to the Viet Nam War. Since then, however, something of a reaction has set in. Denominations have trimmed their social sails, and many activist preachers have turned inward, emphasizing personal psychological needs.

Theologians too have shifted ground. Some have feared that the swing toward social involvement undercut belief in a God who ultimately transcends the affairs of this world. A year ago, a group of them met in Hartford, Conn., and issued a dramatic "Appeal for Theological Affirmation" (TIME, Feb. 10).

The Hartford group--mostly Protestant but with a number of Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox joining in the effort--hurled anathemas against 13 "false and debilitating" themes, including the belief that "the struggle for a better humanity will bring about the Kingdom of God."

That aroused the liberals, who were already on the defensive and felt that the Hartford appeal strengthened a dangerous trend. Last week the latest in a series of responses to Hartford was unleashed by a 21-member task force of the Boston Industrial Mission.* It is a counterattack called "The Boston Affirmations" and it constitutes a theological rallying cry against any retreat from social action.

Insisting that the Social Gospel is not dead, the Boston group is enthusiastic about the struggle by the world's poor for a better material life, the drive for "ethnic dignity," women's campaign against "sexist subordination" in church and society, and efforts to foster a love for cities as "centers of civility, culture and human interdependence."

If the last sounds like an echo of the liberal Protestant bible of the mid-1960s, The Secular City, it is no coincidence. The best-known member of the Boston group is that book's author, Harvey Cox of Harvard Divinity School, who joined the other signers in the scruffy B.I.M. office to celebrate the "Affirmations" with a liturgy and a lunch of jug Burgundy and ham-and-cheese sandwiches. Besides Cox, the task force included Black Theologian Preston Williams of Harvard, a Chicane theologian from California, a local pastor laden with preliminary documents for the World Council of Churches assembly, and Social Ethicist Max Stackhouse of Andover Newton Theological School, who edited the various drafts of the pronouncement.

Fall and Exodus. Despite the continuing argument, there is some convergence between heavenly Hartford and worldly Boston. The Hartford theologians, no social dropouts, insist that emphasis on God's "transcendence" and traditional faith is not only compatible with social action but strengthens it. The Bostonians profess that God "brings into being all resources, all life" and, on that basis, insist that Christians have a responsibility to tackle social ills. The argument proceeds through eight sections, bearing traditional titles ("Creation," "Fall" and "Exodus").

The Boston statement ends on a note of eloquence. When Hartford-style "spiritual blindness" wins out, it says, "the world as God's, creation is abandoned, sin rules, liberation is frustrated, covenant is broken, prophecy is stilled, wisdom is betrayed, suffering love is transformed into triviality."

How will the Hartford transcendence partisans respond to the blast from Boston? Says Cox with a grin: "They will be stunned and so overwhelmed by our logic and theological precision that they will be pressed into embarrassed silence."

*Cambridge-based, the B.I.M. was set up by Protestant churches in 1965 to raise issues of ethics and social justice among the Boston area's business, technological and industrial professionals.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.