617 - The Church and the National Security State

The Church and the National Security State
Jose Comblin
Maryknoll, N.Y., Orbis Books, 1979. 236 pp. $8.95.

As a theological project, this book combines both a hermenutics of the emergence of the new Latin American militarism (the national security state) and an ethic of the church.

The doctrine of the national security state, first heralded after the 1964 Brazilian coup d'etat, rests on the

618 - The Church and the National Security State

premise that Latin America needs "military direction" to resist internal subversion. This doctrine, functioning as an alternative vision to Marxism, has incorporated some historical and traditional aspects of Christianity, while putting aside all the dynamic elements and prophetic tensions of the biblical faith. The doctrine stresses the relationship between the established order (amounting to a militarized society) and "the fundamental bases of society" which are equated to the Western Christian tradition-a posture that implies the co-opting of Christianity. Within that doctrine, the church becomes captive of the state's need for security.

However, the church's captivity is not simply something which is unilaterally imposed by the state upon the church. The institutional church also seeks security because churches have property, gather capital, seek legal defenses, and occupy a position of prestige and privilege in the establishment. The churches enter into the social and cultural structure of a society partly to evangelize it and partly to rest upon it. Hence, captivity is the unavoidable condition of the church, because Christian action in the world, outside of the institutional system, is utopian. Comblin's is a theology of the captivity of the church.

The value of the book is two-fold. It leads the readers to discover the testimony of those Latin American Christians who are striving to be faithful to the gospel in the midst of a most difficult situation characterized by the militarization of society, the consequent suppression of public freedom, and violation of basic human rights. It also invites the readers from other cultural and historical contexts to seek their own situations the inspiration for a real theology of their own.

Gaspar B. Langella
Corporate Witness in Public Affairs
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.
Atlanta, Ga.