KEY CONCEPTS IN BUILDING A PROTESTANT LEFT

PART I. INTRODUCTION, PREHISTORY, EARLY YEARS

Introduction: Who Cares about Christianity and Crisis?

Opening section

Summary of goals xiii and xviii; cultural standpoints xv; summary of C&C changes xvii; paradigm shifts xix; cultural hegemony xix;

Bill Graham and Billy Graham: why C&C is Not Only for Scholars of Religion

Cold war consensus xx; neglect of religion in American Studies xxi; three strikes against C&C xxii; conservative liberal and left concerns about fragmentation xxiv; counter-publics xxvii

C&C and the Internal Politics of Protestantism

Relation to rise of religious right xxviii; relation to cultural diversity xxix; legacy of Niebuhr (how neocons vs. liberationists define “realism”) xxix;

Further Thoughts on Generational Conflict

X hand/Y hand; xxxvi; pay attention to people who come up later including Tillich (xxxvii, 95) Welch (xxxv, compare 233) and Lorde/Carby, xxxviii

Chapter 1. The Social Gospel and C&C’s Prehistory

Understanding the Social Gospel

Social gospel as progressive, as middle class, as politicized wing of liberal theology (2-10); American jeremiad 3; liberal theological method 9

From the Social Gospel to Christian Realism

Four shocks to social gospel paradigm 11-14; Moral Man and Immoral Society 13; core themes of Christian/Niebuhrian realism 15;

Know Your Enemy: Progressivism “Bandaged but Unbowed.”

Neoorthodoxy in radical form (Barth) vs. moderate (Bennett) 17; battle lines of social gospel 19; Copernican shift 19; Century’s reasons to oppose war 19

Chapter 2: The Emergence of C&C

Original Crisis of World War II

C&C versus Century’s perception of the war 25; view of postwar world order 27, “imperialistic realism” 29

The Ethics of Atomic War

Logic of deterrence/lesser evil in Dun Commission 32; compare conservatives on Cold War 33;

The Central Vision Of Cold War Liberalism

Three themes—military defense 34-36; critiques of military solutions (36-40) developmentalism, 41-43 (Compare p. xxxiv.) Note Truman Doctrine 34; arguments appealing to sin and pride 36; cold war neutralism (e.g. Barth) 37-8; viable vs unviable 40; capitalist development assumed to be non-prideful and realistic 43.

Domestic Cold War Liberalism and McCarthyism

Defensive move away from democratic socialism 43-4; self-censorship.

C&C and the American Jeremiad

C&C sees itself humbly moving away from older jeremiads; I’m trying to show how their developmentalism and “imperialistic realism” recasts jeremiads.

Chapter 3. White Males On Blacks, Women and Catholics

Visions of Gradual Progress toward Racial Integration

General vision of civil rights 49-50; standpoints from which they applied this vision to cases 51; Cold War dimensions of civil rights 52; pacifism seen as good and self-defense bad in this case only. 54.

Explicit and Implicit Treatments of Gender and Sexuality

Gendered rhetoric 56; women’s ordination 57; women at Union Seminary 58

From Anti-Catholicism to Alliance with Liberal Catholics

Catholics seen as monolithic and conservative 61; logic of comparing them to Hitler 62; concerns about religious freedom, Kennedy, Vatican II 64; move from a Protestants-versus-others mentality to “triple alliance” of liberal Protestant-Catholic-Jews vs. conservatives from same traditions 65.

PART II. EMERGING POLARIZATION

Chapter 4. Evolving Liberalism and Emerging Polarization

The High Tide of Civil Rights Activism

Bennett’s evolution as bookends for C&C’s evolution 67-8; standpoint within civil rights 69; black nationalism and C&C standoffishness 71-73;

The Politics of Domestic Liberal Reform

Support of Kennedy and Great Society 75; attack Goldwater 76; emerging questions about Great Society 78

Second Thoughts About Developmentalism

Hartz on US as “all liberal and middle class” 79; Rostow on stages of development and dangers of communism 80; “unviable” countries (incapable of democracy, needing US-backed dictators) 80; rising doubts on developmentalism (discussion continues 140)

Suez Crisis and the Turn to East-West Versus North-South Approaches

Cold war (East-West) vs. anti-colonial (North-South) lines of good vs. bad guys in case of Suez 83; same ideas in other cases 87; relation of Suez to moderate pro-Zionist stance on Israel-Palestine 85

The Ethics of Nuclear War

Peaceful coexistence vs. hawks 88; can nuclear war be lesser evil?, 89; role of Bennett’s moderation in listening to new voices 91-92

Chapter 5. Sex, Movies, and the Death of God

Varieties of contextualism 93; summary of changes late 1950s to 1970s 94

Religion, Literature And The Arts

Art as way to shift critique from politics to realm of imagination 94-5 (compare xxxvii); art prophetic judgment versus art as window into otherwise devalued experience 97; highbrow bias 98; debate about sex 99

Contextual Ethics And Its Application To Sex

Rule based principles (correlated with judging rule-breakers) vs rethinking in light of new situations 101; “communities generating basic loyalties” 102 (liberation theologies later extend this point); premarital sex 103;

Secular Theology And Religious Pluralism

Rethinking neo-orthodoxy 106 (compare 15); Secular City; death of God (does not believe in Gods “out there” and rethinks what “divine” means in modernity) 108-9; secularity as resistance to pluralism 110; relation of pluralism and end of liberal Protestant dominance 111

PART III: Breakdown of Consensus on Liberalism

Chapter 6. Shattering of Consensus Over Black Power and Vietnam

Conflict over Humphrey campaign 114; changing constituency 116;

The Breakdown of Civil Rights and the Debate about Black Power

Shocks to integrationist vision and turn to black power 117-120 (review 71-73); difficult bridging role for liberal whites 121; Black Manifesto 123;

Vietnam: Realist Hawks, Realist Doves, Radical Anti-Niebuhrians

Positions on Vietnam before 1960s 127; “viability” of South Vietnam 127 (compare 80); turn toward Vietnamese standpoints and pacifism 129-30; three stances toward US military—peace, liberation, critique deployed “against itself” 132; moderate vs radical Niebuhrian critiques 132-33.

Chapter 7. Flashpoints of Conflict on Other Issues

Conflict Over the Mid-East

Tilt to moderate Palestinian standpoints 136; themes after 1972 139

Developmentalism to Dependency Theory

Critique core ideas of developmentalism 140 (compare 80); reject of idea of third way between fascism and left-nationalist movements 142;

Changing Relationship with Evangelicals and Neoconservatives

Evangelicals and establishment 145; alliances with Nixon 147; evangelicals polarize and C&C allies with evangelical left 146-149; debates whether southern evangelicals could be allies of liberation theology 148; Novak as C&C neoconservative in early 70s (compare Thompson Fitch Ramsey) 149; law and order 150; concept of “new class” 151 (compare 212)

C&C and the Student Left

Moderation compared to student left 152; overtures to counterculture 154; final section is a summary of chapters 6 and 7—pragmatic liberals vs. utopian radicals (links back to p. 114; compare xxxviii)

PART IV: C&C in a liberation paradigm

Chapter 8. Picking Up the Pieces, Integrating Feminist Approaches

Theme of approaching issues “from below” 158;

Early Feminist Explorations

Feminist readings of sex in the media 162; ways to think about “women” 162; Ruether’s socialist feminism 165; two paradigms for sexuality—anti-rape/abuse versus pro-erotic 165

Debate about Abortion Rights

Three stages of debate with growing attention to standpoints of feminist women (especially at third stage); conflict with moderate to rightwing Catholics over whether abortion can be a lesser evil 171-174

The Critique of Heterosexism

Near-silence before 1970s; “scandal of peculiarity” 176; Biblical arguments (note kernel-husk and recontextualization arguments) 177; debates over gay/lesbian ordination 178

Chapter 9. Toward New Contexts and Standpoints for Theology

From “modern man” to specific oppressed groups 181; summary of liberation theology paradigm 183;

Feminist Theology

Pride as male concern reinforcing female masochism 184; reformists (e.g. Trible’s Eve) vs radicals (e.g. Daly’s Mary) 185-7; critique of male prophets and (false) universals 188; Ruether on white feminists who downplay race and class; turn to black women’s experience 189; stages of feminist theology 191.

Black Theology

Cone’s black nationalist break with King’s 191; valorizing black churches 192; Bennett’s pragmatic critique of Cone 194; Cone’s prophetic theology 195.

Latin American Liberation Theology

Gutierrez trying to build Kingdom of God in historical struggle 196; utopia as unrealistic (Sanders) vs. utopia as hope from new standpoint (Alves) 197-200; C&C progressive hope migrating to Latin America 200; Romero as role model 201;

Complex Dialogues within a New Theological Paradigm

Old-school liberals and neo-cons judging contextual theologies 202-4; oppressed groups comparing experience 205; debates about radicalizing universal principles like justice and democracy vs. countercultural suspicion of working within system. (compare Lorde vs. Carby xxxviii and West versus Welch 222-223.)

Chapter 10: Ongoing Debates about Race, Postmodernity and Reagan Era

Opening section defends C&C against mainstream moderates and neoconservatives who dismissed it after 1970.

New Priorities on a Range of Issues

Reagan militarism 211; class issues 212 (compare “new class” view of neocons 151); ecology and agribusiness 213; community organizing 214; popular media 215; Native American 216.

Evolving Debates about Theology, Race, and Postmodernity

Radicalized contextualism by various oppressed groups 216; Thistlethwaite on universal “womanhood” that ignores race 219; postmodern theories of contextualism/historicism 222; West and Ruether caution on excessive concern with difference 230; West as pragmatic contextualist and democratic socialist 221; West compromised by pragmatism 222; Welch’s critique of prophetic paradigm as “erotics of domination” 223 (compare xxxv)

The Battle with Neoconservatives in the Reagan Era

Neoconservative wealth 224; appeal to Niebuhr’s name 225; cynical debate tactics in support of Reagan while presenting selves as objective 226-7 Soelle’s approach to churches engaging with oppression 229 (compare 271)

Chapter 11 is unimportant for our class…

… except pp. 260-261 which discuss the legacy of C&C, given that left-liberal churches and Democratic activists after 1960s have similar problems mobilizing youth who are cynical and demoralized about working through the system.

Epilog: Waiting for the Ghost of Tom Joad

Collapse of New Deal makes Niebuhr seem optimistic 265; Dorrien has good ideas but little popular base to make them work 266; when do Munich analogies and Niebuhrian arguments break down? (by extension when do liberal and neoconservative critiques remain useful?) 268; reflection on how despite paradigm conflict there is a question about radicalizing inherited languages of theology and building C&C’s legacy.