Reviewed Book: Rouner, Leroy S. Civil religion and political theology. Notre Dame, Ind: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986. Boston University studies in philosophy and religio

Reimer, A. James

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 14Issue 2 Issues and Concerns in Ethics Article 2211-1-1988Civil religion and political theologyA. James ReimerFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationReimer, A. James (1988) "Civil religion and political theology," Consensus: Vol. 14 : Iss. 2 , Article 22.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol14/iss2/22122 ConsensusHe could also have included Lutheran theologians in that sense of disquiet!My one disappointment in the text came in this section; I would have de-sired a more comprehensive dialogue with each of these issues. As it is, theauthor remains true to his central thesis and lets the reader wonder aboutpractical and liturgical application.Although writing from a Roman Catholic perspective, Osborne is sensi-tive to Protestant struggles with these sacraments; he cites materials fromthe Lutheran Book of Worship and the Book of Common Prayer and inthe last chapter “The Eucharist, An Integral Part of Christian Initiation,”he engages, in a constructive and provocative manner, Krister Stendahl atlength in his view that “baptism in the NT and in the early church is alwaysan act of initiation, and that this in fact should be the point of departure.”His contention with Stendahl is that Jesus as primordial sacrament mustbe taken as the point of departure.I found it a pleasure to read this book. It’s an engaging document, writ-ten in easily understood language, which will be of value to many people—tothose involved in studies on sacramental theology and practice it will be ahelpful reference; to those involved in seminary course studies, it will be astimulating text or an exciting recommended reading; to pastors and churchleaders participating in ministerial associations or local councils of churches,it could be a resourceful study guide; to persons engaged in inter-churchdialogues, it will serve as a clarifying partner in dialogue.“The theology of both baptism and eucharist [and confirmation] is inti-mately conjoined to ecclesiology and even more fundamentally to christol-ogy.”Arnold D. WeigelWaterloo Lutheran SeminaryCivil Religion and Political TheologyLeroy S. Rouner, editorNotre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986240 pp., U.S. $24.95 cloth“Civil Religion” and “Political Theology” are terms which have becomecommon parlance for many of us ever since the American Robert Bellahpublished his by now famous 1967 essay “Civil Religion in America” andthe German Catholic theologian Johannes Baptist Metz began developinga new Political Theology at about the same time. Seldom, however, do wethink of these together. Here for the first time a group of distinguishedscholars from a variety of disciplines, including Bellah and Metz, discussthese two concepts in relation to each other.All assume that religion and theology have an important role to play inpublic political and social life. They disagree, however, on what form thatBook Reviews 123public responsibility should take. The fundamental disagreement appearsto be between those who prefer to talk about “civil religion” in positiveterms, as a glue which functions to hold a diverse society together, and thosewho see any civil religion as an idolatrous and ideological legitimation of thestatus quo. The former see the need for some shared religious values in apluralistic and democratic society like America if public life is to be possibleat all; the latter call for a theology which is critical of any supportive alliancebetween religion and existing social and political structures.Most of the authors in this volume take a position somewhere in betweenthese two extremes. The editor Leroy Rouner, for instance, reflects theview of a number of the essayists when in his comprehensive introductionhe writes “I would note only that there can be neither public theologynor public philosophy without common ground. This book is a celebrationof that common ground and an expression of the current commitment ofChristian thought to engagement with those historical issues which concernthe entire human family” (20).Of all the authors Jurgen Moltmann is clearly the most critical of allcivil religion, a direct reaction to his experiences of political religion duringthe Hitler era and the political theologies of the right, such as that of CarlSchmitt, who developed a theology in support of National Socialism. Incontrast to this “old” political theology Moltmann’s new political theologyconcentrates on the confessional responsibility of the church within society:“The new political theology is a theory of the public, critical, and liberativefunctions of the Christian church in modern society. It is not the theory ofa political religion of this society... not affirmative but critical” (43).On the other end of the spectrum is Richard John Neuhaus, who sees theneed for a religiously supported American public philosophy which wouldbe democratic and populist, pluralistic in its recognition of a “communityof many communities,” “religiously attuned,” “critically affirmative” of theAmerican liberal-democratic experiment, modest in its expectations, andview the church as “the community of transcendent hope.” Such a publicphilosophy ought to be distinguished from theocratic civil religion but musttake the religious reality of Americans seriously and see particularist religionas providing “a mediating language, a common moral vocabulary to beshared by those who are not of shared religious conviction” (107).Matthew Lamb, Boston College, seems to assume the need for someshared religious values in a society but stresses the ambiguity of both civilreligion and political theology, and the potential for repression in both.They can be either complementary or contradictory to one another, de-pending on whether they “aim at the healing liberation of human life” orwhether “one or the other legitimates or fosters domination” (156). Whatis needed at the end of the modern era is the collaboration of politicaltheology and civil religion in the overcoming of the pathologies of “sex-ism, racism, economic oppression or classism, environmental pollution. ..and militarism” (162) and the moving of “humankind away from the edgeof [nuclear] destruction” (159).124 ConsensusProcess theologian John B. Cobb concludes the book defending a kindof middle position between civil religion and political theology, capitalismand socialism. Cobb is clearly sympathetic to the various liberation andpolitical theologies, their solidarity with the poor and the oppressed, andtheir call for the deprivatization of religion. He is critical, nevertheless,of theologies that he perceives as doing little more than denouncing everyact of government while themselves retaining a distance from all policy for-mation that might involve them in imperfect choices. Cobb sees strengthsand weaknesses in both capitalism and socialism, and urges Christians toreflect seriously on a political economic theory which recognizes the impor-tant insights both of individual freedom and responsibility, and the greaterdistribution of wealth. His major concern, however, is with the punishmentinflicted by both capitalists and socialists on the biosphere through unre-strained industrial growth and modernization, and he challenges Christiansto transcend both alternatives in their economic reflection, seeking ways ofsignificantly restricting individual and corporate selfishness for the savingof this planet.There are many other fine essays in this volume. The first one byThomas McCarthy, in which the author brilliantly demonstrates the sim-ilarity between Kant’s argument that religious beliefs are postulates req-uisite for morality and Helmut Peukert’s “political faith in God” in whichtheology is necessary for universal solidarity with the innocent victims ofhistory, is philosophically the most substantive of the whole book. YaronEzrahi laments the erosion of classical epistemological realism and “objec-tive” science which he considers as having been essential for liberal demo-cratic political discourse in the past. Robert Bellah, while questioning theongoing usefulness of his own earlier term “civil religion,” is insistent on theneed for a public philosophy and public theology, turning to the Niebuhrianrealist model as having ongoing relevance, and seeing the recent CatholicBishops’ Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economyas a step in the right direction.John Wilson maintains that historically what tied Americans togetherwas a “common religion”—first Protestantism and later more broadly theJudeo-Christian tradition—making a civil religion and a political theologypossible. In the pa.st few decades, however, we have become religiouslypluralistic. In this new context any attempt to reinstate a civil religiontends to be socially reactionary; and an aggressive political theology divisive(122). Metz with his usual creativity identifies three competing paradigmsin the present Roman Catholic Church: neo-Marxist, transcendentalist,and his own post-idealist one, which responds to three challenges: Marx-ism, Auschwitz, and the Third World. He identifies recent interest in civilreligion as a neo-conservative “legitimation of politics through religion.”Post-idealist political theology, on the contrary, criticizes all such politi-cization of religion in the light of the Marxist call for universal justice,the Auschwitz demand for anamnestic solidarity with the victims of his-tory, and the Third World challenge to become a “culturally polycentricuniversal church” (151).Book Reviews 125Margaret R. Miles, Harvard Divinity School, in a provocative articleon early North African Christianity, shows how “patriarchal order was not,as we have come to think of it, inevitable, God-ordained, and scripturallybased” but the gradual ecclesiastical subordination of women “who expe-rienced the freedom of Christ specifically as freedom for the cultivation ofa lifestyle and spiritual life undefined by males” (184). Finally, Black the-ologian James H. Cone characterizes Black religious thought in Americaas a distinct amalgam of both African and Christian religion “adapted tothe life situation of black people’s struggle for justice in a nation whosesocial, political, and economic structures are dominated by a white racistideology” (87).The main problem of the book is also its strength: the diversity ofviewpoints. There is no one clear concept of what “civil religion” is, letalone what constitutes the nature of religion. Neither is there one view ofpolitical theology. About the only general consensus amongst the authorsappears to be, as the editor puts it, “that religion must be relevant topolitical life without being co-opted by it” (2). Despite this, and the factthat a number of the essays do not directly address the topic of the book,this is an excellent introduction not only to some of the best sociologists ofreligion and theologians of today but also to the basic issues in the debatebetween civil religionists and political theologians.A. James ReimerConrad Grebel College, University of WaterlooThe Teaching Church—Active in MissionPaul D. and Katherine A. GehrisValley Forge, Pennsylvania: Judson Press98 pp.This book is one of a series of books on The Teaching Church publishedby Judson Press. The series deals with five “functions” of a teaching church:1. affirming the foundations of the teaching ministry; 2. planning for aneffective teaching ministry; 3. developing leaders for a variety of ministries;4. nurturing persons in Christian growth; and 5. enabling the church’smission in the world. The term “missioner” is introduced as “persons whoare actively engaged in mission, beginning where they are and continuingto the far corners of creation” (5).The title caught my attention and I picked the book up eagerly butfound it was difficult for me to read. Upon the third reading it began tomake sense and I realized that it is intended to be a book for study anddiscussion by people who are interested in enabling the church’s mission inthe world. People who wish to develop education for mission will find it

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