Bringing our world together: The empire of Christian Realism, 1870–1952
Abstract
General social and intellectual problems associated with globalization have demanded radical responses from the world's religious communities. Increasing interconnections between peoples after 1870 expanded entrenched structures of conflict, exploitation, and inequality. At the same time, new awareness of similarities and differences between Eastern and Western traditions complicated adherents' claims to unique, infallible insight. I examine how a group of American liberal Protestant theologians, calling themselves "Christian Realists," tried to check real and perceived chaos arising from an interdependent age. Realists have been accused of adjusting too well to oppressive secular authorities and, thus, selling short the liberal Christian quest for beloved community. I argue in contrast that they worked their way pragmatically toward a positive, comprehensive reform program that addressed, to varying degrees of effectiveness, the major political, social, and personal dilemmas related to globalism. Though pursuing careers in urban and international religious service, Realists longed to recreate the integrity and fraternity of their small-town upbringings. They drew upon the scientific philosophy of William James and John Dewey in hopes of fixing an empirical foundation for Judeo-Christian convictions. That intellectual enterprise led them to explore the relevance of orthodox Protestantism, medieval Catholicism, and contemporary Anglo-Catholicism for international Christian renewal. During World War II, leading Realists demanded that their cosmopolitan theology be recognized as specially suited to anchor a postwar world community. Their spiritual imperialism represented a creative, humanitarian challenge to unmediated globalization in its Cold War form of American hegemony. Its subordination of decisionmakers to transcendent norms, nurture of healthy personality through strong local communities, and promotion of countercultural theological understandings of citizen "responsibility" remain compelling aims for present-day reformers and theorists.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Curtis, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Religious history|Religion|Philosophy|American history|Philosophy
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