Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #242864 in Books
• Published on: 1956-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Synopsis
Addresses the challenge faced by American Christians in remaining true to Jesus's message despite materialistic values, in an updated volume containing a new forward, introduction, and preface. Reprint.

Customer Reviews

A Concise Summary of Niebuhr's 5 Types
Two Extremes:

Niebuhr illustrates five different ways that Christian faith can relate with culture. He first presents two extreme options followed by three median ones. In the first type, Christ against culture, the answer to the "enduring problem" is separation. Christ is seen as opposed to culture, and Christians should not be part of culture. Tertullian and Tolstoy are two notorious historical examples of this option.

On the other extreme in Niebuhr's typology, Christ of culture, there is no opposition between Christ, the hero of human achievement, and culture. This group identifies the ideal of a society with the ideal of the Christian faith. Some representatives of this family are James the brother of Jesus, Clement of Alexandria, Abelard, and more recently Albrecht Ritschl and liberal German theologians.

Three Median Types:

The two extreme types do not recognize any tension between Christ and culture. It is either separation or absorption. Between these two types, Niebuhr suggests three others called synthesis, dualists, and conversionists. In the third option, called Christ above culture, all that is good in culture comes from God. Christ comes to ameliorate what is already in society. Some adherents to this view are Thomas Aquinas and the modern Roman Catholic Church.

The fourth and the least clear type is Christ and culture in paradox. In this situation Christians live in a tension between the Kingdom of God and society. They believe they have to be involved in society the best they can while keeping allegiance to Christ. Christians have to live in the tension and reality of two types of ethics. This type is associated with Luther, Troeltsch, and Reinhold Niebuhr.

The last type is Christ the transformer of culture. In this mode Christians are to transform every sphere of society and convert it to Christianity. Calvin's transformation of Geneva is a great example of this option.