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The Church In the World
By E. G. Homrighausen

RETROSPECTIVE

Since this is the thirtieth anniversary issue of THEOLOGY TODAY, the editor has asked me to be somewhat personal in my observations about the church in the world during the last three decades. My odyssey or pilgrimage began in 1900, the last year of the nineteenth century and it has extended through nearly three quarters of the twentieth century. This century has been shaken to its foundations by "rapid" and "radical" change, In it two devastating, disruptive wars were fought by "Christian" nations. It has released knowledge, invention, and communication which have changed the style of life for billions of people. Political, economic, ideological, religious, moral, social revolutions have altered traditional cultures on all continents. Developments have been bewildering and shocking to say the least.

While much in daily life remains the same, the external context and the internal perspective of life have been so radically affected that anyone living through it all has difficulty in making sense of so vast and complex a mixture of historical events. And yet the ballast of experience is one of the steadying constants that makes one able not only to survive but to appreciate, evaluate, and understand the challenges of change and move into newer and larger dimensions of Christian faith and life.

I detect a major turning point in the 1950's and 60's. After an exhausting war, everyone hoped for -an era of normalcy and peace. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a man of peace, served as president for two terms. During his tenure, the Korean War was concluded. The United Nations had come into being. The churches were prospering financially, membership was at an all-time high, and they were supported by a friendly culture. At the close of the decade a Roman Catholic was elected President, and he charmed the nation with his youthfulness, idealism, and charismatic personality. High hopes were born for the great society. Preparations were made by beloved Pope John XXIII to call Vatican Council II. In some ways the decade was "artificial," since it was neither a prolongation of the 40's nor did it seem to anticipate what was to come in the 60's. It was a prelude before the storm, As Ahlstrom writes, "the fifties were a time of Indian summer of confident living and renewed religious interest."

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The 60's have been called the "unhealthy" decade. Perhaps "mad" would be more descriptive. It was a time of violent confrontations, political assassinations, burning ghettoes, racial clashes, disrupted and tragic campuses, reduced church support, membership, and attendance, disillusioned social hopes, widening credibility gaps between many groups, increase in crime, revolution in sex and family life, counter culture, rejection of the work ethic, and other factors which disturbed the cultural and religious fabric of life. And the recent exposure of immorality in high places has added to the list a tragic flaw which has shaken the basic confidence of people in government, the democratic process, and the American dream.

Of major catalytic importance in the 60's was the conflict over the Vietnam war which caused radical divisions in the American community. The situation was aggravated by mounting problems of pollution, poverty, civil rights, industrial growth, and other issues that taxed traditional loyalties and structures to the point of frustration, apathy, and even violence. To quote Ahlstrom again, "The sixties was a time, in short, when the old foundations of national confidence, patriotism, idealism, moral traditionalism, and even historic Judaeo-Christian theism, were awash. Presuppositions that had held firm for centuries-even millennia-were being widely questioned." Little wonder that some were saying that the United States was falling apart; that it had seen its best days; that its materialistic, technological, and democratic success were cause for its decline and decay. Some said America was in a state of cultural collapse. And a few talked about doomsday, the end, and the eruption of wild primeval chaos.

The churches were shaken to their foundations in the 60's. Popular polls indicated that they had lost much influence in society. After years of emphasis upon renewal, what had happened? How real was the Christian commitment of the average church member? Had the church become a social club that people dropped when they were no longer interested? Had the church become a chaplain to religion in general, to a civil religion whose content was a vague belief in the religiousness of the American way of life? Little wonder that churchmen were speaking of "the last days of the church," "the empty pew," "bare, ruined choirs," and "the gathering storm in the church." There was talk of burying the parish. And some ministers and priests went into social service, education, business, or one of the other helping professions.

In the middle of the sixties Time magazine raised the question on the cover of its Easter issue, "Is God Dead?" Was the religion of the churches only a matter of form, preserved in "God talk," confined to an establishment, practiced only on certain occasions and in special places at certain times? Was God really alive, or was he

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worshipped in church as a museum piece of a once-vital faith of the fathers? How could one talk of God in a scientific age and make him as relevant as atomic energy, daily food, or human relations? Other phrases caused the bewildered layman and minister uneasiness: "man come of age," "religionless Christianity," "new morality." Innovations in liturgy, language, music, and dress added to the confusion. Faithful parishioners wondered whether these changes meant a radical transformation of their faith. And the gap widened between clergy and laity, leadership and membership, in both Catholic and Protestant churches. They had not been able for many to interpret the events of the sixties in a satisfactory way. Those who were active in social action were greatly disillusioned as were the faithful who were concerned about maintaining the traditional faith. One asked whether a just society is possible, and the other asked whether the updating of the faith meant its radical transformation. Institutional church union as proposed by COCU was suspect because it seemed to be another imposed bureaucratic structure. Even the Catholic church which had hoped for renewal and unity was disturbed by individuals and groups who were either pushing for greater liberty in updating the faith, or who were for stricter adherence to the dogmatic traditions of the church.

Walter Wagoner observed several years ago that Protestantism was suffering from a four-fold malady: theological exhaustion, parish bafflement, ecumenical doldrums, and devotional emptiness. More recently he has described the situation as one of foggy trendlessness, turbulent uneasiness, with church leaders who lack program priorities and commitment and theological seminaries more interested in the study of religion than in educating ministers for parishes. He thinks we are wandering in the wilderness having lost our sense of origin and destiny; we are in a period of disorientation and confusion with no hope for clearer configurations for a decade or more. And Martin Marty agrees, except that he thinks this time of wandering is creative and that seminaries are becoming more parish-oriented. And there are evidences that much is happening in local parishes; there are signs of spiritual concern inside and outside churches, and theological questions are being raised about many issues of common concern in areas outside the churches.

WHAT IN THE WORLD?

This unrest in the American churches is found across the world. The causes are the same: changed social situation, innovations in theology, novel ritual observances, and issues in society. In Latin

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America, Catholic and Protestant leaders have spoken out concerning illiteracy, political corruption, economic disparity between rich and poor, domination of weaker nations by the powerful, and inhuman treatment of political prisoners. They have criticized military governments, exploitative capitalism, and illegal arrests. Fidel Castro has commented that the United States should be more concerned about Catholic revolutionaries than communists. Some church leaders have espoused socialism, championed liberation theology, encouraged violence in bringing about social justice, associated with guerrillas such as Camilio Torres and Che Guevara, joined in a "third world movement" and a "Christian socialism" group, and spoken well of some aspects of Marxism. Foreign priests participating in acts of liberation have been deported. Some priests have been warned by their bishops about leftist leanings and activities, and still others have been called subversive and imprisoned by state authorities. Ivan Illich continues CIDOC at Cuernavaca which is engaged in many studies relative to Christianity and society, particularly in Latin America. No doubt, the progressive forces for social reform have been dealt a crippling blow by the take-over of Chile by a military junta. Priests and missionaries are deeply involved. Dropouts from the priesthood have been numerous; in Brazil, the number is estimated at between 1,800 and 2,000 in the sixties. Rebellious priests are more opposed to social and economic injustices than they are to the internal discipline of the church. And Protestantism is uneasy because of similar issues.

In Africa the church and the world are also in a state of unrest. One has but to mention South Africa, Rhodesia, and Mozambique to focus on matters of racial conflict and discrimination, continuing colonial policy, and national development. Some churchmen who have opposed a national policy of racial separation have suffered harassment, arrest, and deportation. Racial tensions have broken out in Nigeria, the Upper Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, and Kenya. The new spirit of nationalism places the younger churches in difficult positions. In the Congo, now renamed Zaire, the vigorous Joseph-Albert Cardinal Malula, leader of seven million Roman Catholics, opposed President Joseph Mobotu on matters of youth work and education and went into self-exile for a time. Similar confrontations have taken place in communist Guinea, in the Cameroon, Malagasy, and Uganda. African church leaders and their denominations are weaning themselves from mission-dominated beginnings and are "Africanizing" their leadership, financial support, educational philosophy and practice, and even ritual, worship, and theology. And in some nations where primary education is offered largely by the churches, governments are trying to impose their national policies.

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Unrest is also a characteristic of life in Asia. Several Korean ministers were recently arrested. because of their criticism of the present government. The Taiwan Presbyterian Church has issued "A Statement on Our National Fate" in face of new developments regarding mainland China. Churches in the Philippines have experienced martial law; some have been accused of being too closely associated with the ruling class and others with land reform. Churches in Burma, India, and Ceylon have had to adjust to restrictions placed upon their educational institutions, financial support, and missionary relationships. While there are Christians in mainland China, this remnant is living under difficult conditions. There are younger churchmen in Japan who chafe under the limitations of a prevailing church traditionalism, and they are pioneering in theological and ethical concerns.

As for Europe, one has but to single out the vigorous atheism of Albania, the North Ireland conflict, the churches in Eastern Europe and Russia, and the church-state ferment in Spain. European Catholicism has its theological, ethical, and ecclesiastical problems, such as papal infallibility, church elections, drop in attendance, liturgical innovations, collegiality, celibacy, birth control, divorce, decline in the number of priests, and the involvement of priests in social action. In Sweden, there is concern about the impending church-state separation. Church attendance in Finland is the lowest in all of Europe. Churchmen in England and Scotland are faced with losses in membership, decline in church attendance, shortage of ministers, popular interest in Christianity and spiritual movements but not in the church, and the relation of Britain to membership in the European Market. And while churches are operating in Eastern Europe, some with vigor, and there have been Christian-Marxist dialogues, the official government position still discriminates against Christians and promotes atheism through all the media.

There is also conflict among groups of the Jewish faith in Israel. There have been some evidences of restriction on Christian evangelistic work. And the problems of Arab Christians in the Near and Middle East are related to Arab-Israeli tensions.

Add to this universal unrest the fact that the great century of foreign missions is past; that the old religions once thought moribund have revived; that the third world, its people, nations, churches, religions, is emerging to assume its place alongside east and west; that nationalism is still a factor in the churches as well as the world; that communism maintains its hostility against all religions; that secularism and affluence affect the quality of Christian discipleship; that traditionalism still bangs on tenaciously to binding patterns of institution and conduct.

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SIGNS TO TOMORROW

Looking backward over the decades past and looking outward upon what is happening now, are there indications that warrant some tentative evaluations about the church in the world today and for tomorrow?

(1) In spite of the radical changes that have taken place I am amazed at the persistence of the church. The church has not suffocated in Eastern Europe as the communists predicted a generation ago; indeed, there is evidence that it is stronger today because the situation has forced it to recover its unique vocation and brought it closer to the people. The church learned much by its encounter with National Socialism, as the Barmen Declaration should remind us. The younger churches once set free from western paternalism have not floundered and declined; on the contrary, their independence has resulted in new forms of organization, thought, life, social action, and liturgy which are enriching the whole church of Jesus Christ. New national policies have been handled realistically and creatively. The church has not only survived but learned from experiences in Nigeria, Upper Sudan, Indonesia, Burma, Ceylon, and many other places. No doubt the church will not only survive but grow stronger and more influential as it uses for redemptive purposes the painful changes through which it passes.

(2) The church has grown. In some countries expansion has been phenomenal. One African church recently admitted to membership, in the World Council of Churches has a membership of three and a half million. This church is indigenous and has not been supported or established by foreign missions. It is estimated that there are at present 68 million Christians in Africa. The prediction is that by the year 2,000 one-half of Africa will be Christian.

From 1925-1950 the churches in Taiwan and Korea multiplied three times; in Indonesia five times; in Argentina six times; in India eight times; in the Congo eleven times; in Brazil twenty-four times. And it is estimated that by the year 2,000 less than half of the Christians of the world will be white; and that by that time the center of the church will no longer be in London, New York, Basel, or Nashville.

(3) In spite of the recent slowdown, the ecumenical movement is still a great fact of our time. This is a period of reevaluation of what is meant by unity. No longer do we call denominations "sinful" as once was done; rather they are expressions of valid facets of the gospel which are to be appreciated like masterpieces of different schools in an art gallery. Dialogues are being carried on among Orthodox, Reformed, Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Lutheran communions, resulting in an increased understanding of

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traditions, theologies, and practices. And there are new forms of ad hoc unity in local communities which go beyond the groups involved in COCU. Unity is no longer regarded as necessarily organizational; the old institutional patterns no longer suffice to channel the existing ecumenical spirit. Unity is also more deeply related to the Biblical concept of mission. And instead of thinking of unity as something to be achieved, there is today an acceptance of the fact that unity is already in being and that the fullness of the church is to be seen more in its variety-in-unity than in a uniform institution.

In spite of criticisms leveled at the World Council of Churches, some of which are indeed justified, its early western and Protestant character is now truly ecumenical. It has provided a forum and a voice for the discussion of crucial concerns of all the churches; it has given the member churches a focus and a center through which approaches can be made to Roman Catholicism, and to governments and whole continents. It has brought together scores of churchmen, both lay and clergy, in face-to-face dialogues about common issues of faith and action.

(4) And what shall we say of theology? James I. McCord not long ago said that theology is a "shambles." Others have spoken of theological exhaustion, confusion, trendlessness, outlinelessness. There are some communions such as the Southern Baptist and the Missouri Lutheran that maintain a fairly intact theological system. This is also true of the extra-church groups such as Campus Crusade, Young Life, the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, and the "evangelicals." However, it seems as if theology today is something that we do and not something to which we subscribe. Many are "doing" theology in their own way quite emancipated from historic systems. As a result, we have many theologies: process, secular, radical, black, liberation, women's, social, relational, and others. The only cohesive center seems to be the figure of Jesus as immediately experienced or of God as immanent human and social reality. In any case, this time of emancipation has provided opportunity for exploration, exploitation, and experimentation.

In his recent book, Harvey Cox describes his pilgrimage from a Baptist upbringing on through his recent study of Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Fatima, Immaculate Conception, the Virgin of Guadalupe. Prior to that he explored life in Philadelphia (where he wrote The Secular City), Berlin, Boston, Esalen, and other places and groups. He thinks that "professional theologians have been listening to themselves too much when they should be trying to understand the religion of the poor, repressed, and colonized people."

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This is a creative period of freedom for theological activity in which it may be impossible to construct a system of theology. Theologizing is being related to every issue from ecology to transplants, from civil religion to non-Christian faiths, from sex relations to multinational corporations. It has been taken out of the ivory tower and the sanctuary. It has become the concern of every man, whether inside or outside the churches. Whatever theology will issue from this time of ferment and fluidity, it will certainly have larger dimensions, more relevant relationships, more ecumenical character, than any theology of the past. It will be an operational theology that will serve the church, the servant people of God.

EPILOGUE

In some respects we are back in the days of the young Barth who was reared in a 'Christian" culture. Christianity then was at home with science and history and academia. Then came the terrible shock of violent warfare which disillusioned Barth about the current religion. He found in the Bible another kind of Christianity, one of revelation, confrontation, and faith. The exchange of letters between Harnack and Barth brings out the radical difference between these two theological worlds. It would be revealing to read these letters in our time to see if they have anything to say to us.

THEOLOGY TODAY was born in the 1940s. That, too, was a time of war and violence. And THEOLOGY TODAY had a long period of gestation in the mind and heart of John A. Mackay. In his inaugural address as President of Princeton Seminary, on "The Restoration of Theology," he issued a call to a concerned group of colleagues who would seek to restore a theology that possessed the qualities of passion and thought, born of commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord. He championed a theology with a missionary thrust, an ecumenical dimension, and a personal passion that would be related to the affairs of men. In a period of confusion and crisis, he wrote, "when tomorrow is being born in the travailing womb of today, theology is the most important study in which men can engage as they make their pilgrimage from one era to another, and from this world to the world to come. Now is the time of all times to be concerned about the living God, his timeless purpose, and his will for mankind today and tomorrow." Theology for Mackay was not a pedantic affair but "earnest thinking about God, carried on in the light of God, and designed to help men to be like God in their character and God-centered in their conduct."

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While THEOLOGY TODAY was designed to be interested in true scholarship and sound learning, it was not to yield to the temptation to turn the sacred stream into "a fishing pond for pedants, or for people of exclusively technical and polemical interests." Theology in THEOLOGY TODAY was to be a servant of the living God. And it was to have a missionary thrust that aimed at nothing less than total commitment to Jesus Christ as the Lord and incarnate truth. John A. Mackay wrote with a prophetic spirit. And while he addressed himself to the mid-forties in a time of global war and tragedy, he spoke with an enlightenment about life and history that makes his word come alive for us after the tragic decade of the 1960's. So, as we look backwards and reflect on the issues in theology and the church that engaged our attention during the past thirty years, we can gain "Wisdom and courage" for today and expect still greater things for tomorrow.