Suchergebnisse

A topic like moral aspiration raises questions that no historian can long neglect if he deals with sovereign national entities such as the United States. One of the most challenging questions to be faced has to do with those mysterious bonds of affection and loyalty that provide whatever degree of psychic unity and collective aspirations a country may possess. In responding to a question about the religious dimension of national aspirations, however, I am tempted by the promise of a shortcut modeled on an argument that gained prominence among nineteenth-century Baptists belonging to the Landmark movement who, despite the absence of clear historical evidence, wished to establish the unbroken continuity of the Baptist succession from apostolic times to the present day.

In 1964, when race relations in America were under the sway of Martin Luther King's dream of future amity, and before President Johnson's war policy had destroyed the moral cohesion of the country, Paul C. Nagel published his impressive study, One and Indivisible: The Union in American Thought, 1776-1860. Now his second massively researched volume, This Sacred Trust: American Nationality, 1798-1898 (Oxford University Press; 376 pp.; $9.50), brings his account down, with some shift of emphasis, to the debates over imperialism occasioned by the War with Spain. Though the book ends almost seventy-five years ago, it has an obvious timeliness—not only because American imperialism is again a subject of worldwide debate but because American commitment to a sacred trust is seriously weakening. The traditional grounds of American loyalty are rapidly dissolving.

The decade of the 1960's has been marked by revolutionary changes in theology and ethics as well as in re ligious attitudes and moral standards. The over-all ecclesiasti cal situation has also been profoundly altered, for Protestants, Catholics, and Jews alike. Radical theology, powerful counter cultural movements, a search for new life styles, serious dis satisfactions with traditional modes of religious expression, and widespread questioning of long-accepted views on the church, the university, and the state have put the 1960's into sharp contrast with the postwar period of affluence and religious re vival. This relatively sudden transition is by no means easily explained, especially since the underlying intellectual and social issues have been slowly maturing for hundreds of years. There are certain half-coincidental convergences and a number of es pecially catalytic events, however, that have given a powerful popular base to anxieties and doubts that were once more restricted. Especially critical were the demographic and tech nological developments that led, almost simultaneously, to both an urban crisis and a racial crisis. At the same time that his toric religious convictions and ecclesiastical loyalties were being severely tested, moreover, the long-accepted grounds for confi dence in and allegiance to the American system were being undermined by the diversion of governmental concern and resources from the works of peace and reconstruction to the prosecution of the war in Vietnam. What might otherwise have been a difficult but gradual transition thus became sudden, traumatic, and disruptive.

The new elements in the moral, intellectual, & religious atmosphere which came to pervade the US during the decade of the 1960's are explored. It is seen that these elements explain why the US found itself in revolutionary circumstances at that particular time. The most widely publicized aspect of the decade's religious history was the emergence of a radical movement in theology & ethics. The over-all ecclesiastical situation has also been profoundly altered, for Protestants, Catholics, & Jews alike. Many ancient modes of thinking were being altered in the 1960's. The changes seem to involve a deep shift in the presuppositional substructures of the Amer mind. They can be designated as metaphysical, moral, & soc: (1) a growing attachment to naturalism or 'secularism' that makes people suspicious of anything supernatural; (2) a creeping (or galloping) awareness of vast contradictions in US life between profession & performance, the ideal & the actual; & (3) increasing doubt re the capacity of present-day ecclesiastical, pol'al, soc, & educ'al instit's to rectify these contradictions. The reasons for these new positions are traced to the impact of sci, relativism & technology which began to be felt already in the 19th cent, & to the state of 'puritanical legalism' in the US which tended to be oblivious to the intellectual revolutions of the modern world. 5 catalysts propelled these changes: (i) The long-developing problems of unregulated Ur growth began to create environmental problems with which US pol'al & fiscal practices could not cope. (ii) Technological developments in agriculture & industry produced migrations of people that led the nat'l electorate to repudiate many of those arrangements that had long maintained the Protestant establishment & the WASP ascendancy in US life. (iii) Rapid technological & sci'fic advancements contributed another vital dimension to the nat'l mood. Their impact was enormously increased by sensational accomplishments that aroused the popular imagination (eg, the manned trip to the moon). (iv) The Cuban missile crisis, continued nuclear testing, attempts to achieve internat'l control of nuclear armaments seemed to underline the tentativity of mankind's earthly existence. (v) The drastic escalation of the war in Vietnam prevented an effective coping with the nation's problems of poverty & Ur dislocation. Modified HA.

The current upsurge of interest in religion in the United States is two-fold: popular and theological. The locus of religious thought has shifted in the twentieth century from Europe to the United States, and the present religious revival is distinguished from earlier ones by the activity of a significant number of first-rate intellectuals contributing to a renewed theology and a fresh philosophy of religion. Neo-orthodoxy among theologians, ecumenicalism among churches, and a religious curiosity on all levels are major aspects of the contemporary situation. The reinvigoration of theology now underway in the United States represents a confluence of many streams of religious thought: an existential idealism begun in Europe; the philosophical and ethical lessons of Plato, Aristotle, and the classic Stoics; a concept of creative dialogue with the world, society, and culture springing from nineteenth-century liberalism; the demythologizing of the Scriptures; an approach to dogmatics which does not dismiss philosophical issues; and an insistence upon an ethic which is Christocentric, theologically oriented, and biblically grounded but also relevant to the situation of the contemporary individual.—Ed.

The current upsurge of interest in religion in the US is 2-fold: popular & theological. The locus of religious thought has shifted in the 20th cent from Europe to the US, & the present religious revival is distinguished from earlier ones by the activity of a signif number of first-rate intellectuals contributing to a renewed theology & a fresh philosophy of religion. Neoorthodoxy among theologians, ecumenicalism among churches, & a religious curiosity on all levels are major aspects of the contemporary situation. The reinvigoration of theology now underway in the US represents a confluence of many streams of religious thought: an existential idealism begun in Europe; the philosophical & ethical lessons of Plato, Aristotle, & the classic Stoics; a concept of creative dialogue with the world, society, & culture springing from 19th cent liberalism; the demythologizing of the Scriptures; an approach to dogmatics which does not dismiss philosophical issues; & an insistence on an ethic which is Christocentric, theologically oriented, & biblically grounded but also relevant to the situation of the contemporary individual. AA.