Religion in the 20th Century
1. The close of the 19th Century
A. In the period leading up to the war America was very expansionistic
1. It was a period of great mission involvement—missions was the religious expression of American nationalism.
2. It was a period of Anglo-Saxon racial superiority
3. This urge was felt much more by Americans who stayed at home than the actual missionaries in the filed.
4. There were many interdenominational conferences to see if they could all work together
B. Roosevelt presented the idea or doctrine that war was not the worst thing in the world and might be a great instrument or the righteousness of God— God using American arms, especially our great Navy
C. The Spanish-American war had the full blessing of the churches
1. To Protestants it was a way of extending our faith to Cuba
2. A way of throwing out the Catholics
D. “Bigness” invaded the mission field.
1. Large numbers of missionaries went
2. Also a change in mission philosophy
— stress not on saving heathens from sin
— but more social and humanitarian values
3. Problems with this was that the missionaries on the field were not imperialistic in the least.
E. The Peace Movement
1. William Jennings Bryant
2. Mark Twain
3. Thought imperialism would ultimately ruin America
4. There was a blending of internationalism and the peace movement so that the role of America in world affairs was seen as that of a peace maker
2. The Churches and WWI:
A tremendous move from isolationism of 1916 to the enthusiastic mobilization of 1917
B. Two words characteristic of the mood of the period:
a. naivete
b. idealism
C. No group more supported the war than the church
D. War was explained:
a. a just war
b. a police action
c. the allies as peace officers
E. There was a great deal of prejudice against the pacifists’ denominations
—The Quaker’s & Mennonites
F. In conjunction with the defeat of the Kaiser as arch enemy of civilization the churches also attacked drinking–part of the anti-salon movement
—prohibition was on the way
G. Jan. 16 1920 the 18th amendment was ratified by Congress–it was called the noble experiment by Hoover (wines and vines)
H. The churches did not anticipate the “after the war let down” which soon followed the Treaty of Versailles
I. The Expansionism:
1. Imperialism was seen as a missionary obligation
2. The Cross with a U.S. flag was common
3. Three things coalesced here: patriotism; imperialism; and American religion
4. American entry into the war cannot be seen apart from American sense of missions
5. The war was seen as an expansion of the social gospel.
6. There were appeals to Scripture - Exodus 17: 8-16
—the war on earth was linked to the war in heaven
7. German Americans were suspect and discriminated against
8. The churches did all possible to strengthen the war effort
9. But by the end of the war it was apparent that American had not been converted to any sense of international ability
3. The “retreat” to normalcy:”
A. After the war there was a steady decline in church interest
B. An acceleration toward secularization
C. There was a general wave of skeptism
D. A religion as a serious subject disappeared from literature
E. A more casual attitude toward church attendance ensued.
F. A naturalistic approach to man took hold
(1) Freudianism
(2) )Pragmatism
G. The trend toward the new merchandising
(1) Mass Media
(2) cars
(3) A shorter work week
H. Installment buying and wild business speculation
I. Development of the consumers’ mentality (advertising helped conjure up all of this)
J. The internecine war of the Protestants
(1) polarization
(2) extreme positions were taken by a few
K. Two major results
(1) pluralization
(2) secularization
A.F. NORTH WHITEHEAD: SAID OF PROTESTANTISM: ITS DOGMAS NO LONGER DOMINATE, ITS DIVISIONS NO LONGER INTEREST, ITS INSTITUTIONS NO LONGER DIRECT THE PATTERNS OF LIFE.”
L. All of the ethical reasons for the war had depended on the arrival of a new era of world history after WWI— it never came and so the churches were wrong and woefully deficient in the appreciation of sin and world forces.
4. The Decade of the 1920s
A. The two poles
---- the war at the beginning
----the great depression at the end
B. Standards of living took a great leap forward:
— more leisure
—vacations with pay
—women got the right to vote
—national advertising made its appearance
—the mass media appeared
ALL OF THESE THINGS CREATED A CLIMATE OF CONFLICT: great debates, furious conflicts, controversies, fulminations.
C. Church decline showed up in the following areas:
—attendance
—contributions
—mission volunteers
—tendencies to identify religion with business oriented values
— the loss of the hold of puritanism on leaders in public life
D. The prohibition movement
1. Almost with unanimity the churches endorsed the anti-saloon movement.
2. After the 18th amendment, Congress passed the Volstead Act to enforce prohibition—Wilson vetoed it
3. Encouraging prohibition was a major protestant task of the 20s
4. A great threat came when Al Smith a Catholic from NY ran for President
5. This was the only time that he Protestants and liberals co-operated at this level and when it failed it surely transformed the face of American religion—it had vast implications later on the ecumenical movement
E. Religious and theological movements of the 20s
1. There was a wave of inspirational literature
—victorius living
—constructive thinking
— authenticity being a real person
2. The theology of wealth
That is the connection between being rich and being good
3. Liberal theology
— trend toward empiricism
—pragmatism of William James
— loss of idealism—more this world oriented
4. Fundamentalist—controversy
—the Scopes monkey trial
— it was a dispensationalist movement
—tried to pass a law that evolution could not be taught in Tenn.
—all of this polarized the churches
—Biblical literalism became a big problem and there was a vast cleavage
—3 major issues
A. A need for a formal declaration
B. Heresy among foreign missionaries
C. Liberalism in the seminaries
—major effect on Protestants: they lost all social influence
—in 1929 the Great Depression began
5. The impact of the Great Depression
a. the youth left the church
b. ethnic animosities
c. there was a loss of confidence in the future
d. class antagonism
e. political and religious views tended toward the extreme
f. old popular beliefs collapsed
g. confidence in the American way of life waned
h. faith in the automatic nature of progress collapsed
i. A new kind of national self awareness (we are all in the same boat)
J. The social gospel was revitalized
k. new-emphasis on the individual
l. erosion of moral standards
m. those on the political right became the minority
5. The post liberal Theological mind
A. Ignored Pauline theologies
B. Disillusionment due to harsh conditions of the depression
C. Placed God’s sovereignty over against anthropocentrism
D. Renewed emphases on the Bible as the revealer of God
E. The sins of human pride and selfishness were emphasized
F. A revived interest in Christ ology
6. Ecumenicism
A. Federal Council of the churches of Christ in America founded in Phila., December 1908
1. Stressed the unity of the Church
2. Foster co-operation
3. Promote mutual counsel in spiritual matters
4. Broaden moral and spiritual influence of the churches
5. Encourage local churches to be established
B. National Council of Churches
A merger of several mission agencies in Dec., 1950
C. World Council of Churches (a Communist organization)
1. Open membership
2. Facilitate common action
3. Carry their agenda of faith and order
4. Promote ecumenical consciousness
5. Establish with other ecumenical groups a relationship
6. To call world conferences on important subjects and tasks
7. What the Protestants had learned from all their experience in WWI both before and after:
A. A sense of the sinfulness of man
B. The finitude of nations
C. Limitations on American virtue
D. Fundamentalism had lost support on the moderate middle class in American religion.
8. The crisis that led up to the opening of WWII:
A. A Neo-orthodoxy supplants fundamentalism (Marx)
1. Scientific freedom
2. Biblical criticism
3. Urban mores
4. The critique of social and economic structures
THE ABOVE ITEMS ARE NO LONGER CONSIDERED CONTRADICTORY TO FAITH
B. Neo-orthodoxy was a major reassessment of the church tradition in America
C. Its roots were in Europe
1. Roots in German liberalism a reaction to the debacle of WWI
2. It was a reaction to these things
—decadence of the bourgeois culture (middle class)
— mass man
—the end of western civilization
— the death of God concept and the theology that followed
D. Its basic principles
—based on the theology of crisis
—based on the assumption that liberalism had totally failed
—there was an emphasis on apostolic preaching
—restoration of the reformers (AS EXAMPLES)
—emphasis on social Christianity grew out of disgust with the alignment of the church to middle class values
—emphasis on ecumenicism (the church was once again in focus)
E. The American neo-orthodoxy was a reaction to:
—social injustice
—political & church utopianism
—routine complacency
— ecclesiastical passivity
—reacted to evolutionary influence of liberalism
—wanted to hold on to the transcendent God
F. The essence of Neo-orthodoxy:
1. Doctrinal diversity (between liberals and conservatives)
2. Represented an attack on liberalism
—progress of man is a myth
— liberalism has failed
3. It has an existential point of view
—renewed interest in Kierkegaard
4. Absorbed the positive spirit of the New Deal era
6. Renewed the doctrine of the church
A. Emphasis on the NT community
B. Restore the role of laity in worship
C. Ecclesiology was a major concern
7. Stressed the revival of supernaturalistic way of thinking
8. A renewed interest in the Social Gospel
—the kingdom of God was seen as a “gradually evolving social order”
9. The two main opponents of the social Gospel:
a. big business
b. religious groups with a strong revivalistic emphasis
H. Roots of the Social Gospel
1. Puritanism—with the ideal of re-making society
2. The churches were all basically social oriented & the preacher did not lay aside those concerns when he was in the pulpit
3. The main influence came from European Christian Socialism ( Albrecht Ritschl 1922-89)
4. The opponent as far as ideas went was the basic American contempt for poverty
three. Liberal Theology in America
A. The immediate background of liberalism in America was to profound transformation in progress in America
1. Darwinism created a number of unsettling problems
2. The rise of positivistic naturalism
B. Liberalism rises to challenge traditional beliefs in American
1. Agnosticism—Robert Green Ingersoll
2. Unitarismnism —Francis Ellingwood Abbot
3. The question of the Universe
a. Uniformitarianism
b. clumsy attempts to create harmonies between science and Scripture
C. By 1869 the real impact of Darwinism was felt in America
D. The impact of History
1. Uniformitarian principles were applied to the interpretation of the past to the exclusion of miracles and divine providence
2. The Scriptures were interpreted in the same manner as important historical documents (criticism)
3. Scientific study of the Bible came on its own — the nature of Christ and atonement could be understood and studied scientifically
—this is the doctrine of humanism
4. The application of comparative religions blunted the uniqueness of Christianity
5. Historicism was generally practiced
(1) relativism
(2) determinism
IN OTHER WORDS GOD IS NOT INVOLVED IN HUMAN HISTORY
E. The nature of Liberalism:
—emphasized the freedom of man
—sin had to be construed only as an error
—strong emphasis on ethical preaching and moral education
—interest in ecumenicism
—belief in the inevitable progress
—a very this worldly orientation \
—radical criticism of the Bible
—basic orientation toward immanence and away from transcendence
F. Major impact of liberalism:
—liberals led the way in the compromise with scientism
—brought traditions into conflict and thus carried on the work of the Enlightenment
—wrecked the protestant churches
—prepared the ground for the development of the social gospel
G. This caused some major split is Protestantism
—some became more agnostic (Clarence Darrow)
—encouraged social gospelers who wanted to address social needs
— those troubled by the departure of Old Time religion
—advance the cause of Pentecostal and Holiness groups.
By Lane Rogers