Neo-Orthodoxy
The term "neo-orthodoxy" refers to a 20th century movement among Protestant theologians -- in the United States and in Europe -- that emerged following the bloody carnage of World War I. The disillusionment that several Christian theologians -- and millions of others impacted by the War -- experienced led to a rejection of the liberal Christian movement which had urged the adaptation of an ongoing sense of optimism that seemed to cling to the literal translation and understanding of the Bible. Some parts of the Bible simply could not be true, according to neo-orthodoxy, and this point-of-view continues today albeit not under the neo-orthodoxy movement per se.
This paper reviews the tenets of neo-orthodoxy and embraces the writings and the philosophies of notable theologians like Karl Barth, Emil Brunner, Rudolf Bultmann, and Reinhold Niebuhr. These theologians are linked by their understanding of neo-orthodoxy, and by their advocacy of neo-orthodoxy; however, each has a unique way of expressing neo-orthodoxy and those differences will be pointed out in this paper.
Karl Barth
It is generally agreed among scholars and historians that Barth was the originator of neo-orthodoxy. Barth raised serious questions about liberal theology which in the 1930s emphasized "God's accessibility and equated humankind's work with God's activity" (von Dehsen, 2013). Among the many positions that Barth took in his writings from his German homeland was his thorough rejection of nationalism and socialism. Author Carys Moseley explains that in order to understand Barth one must be informed as to Barth's writings in the 1930s, when Germany was being taken over by the Nazis and Hitler's main theme was wrapped around the concept of nationalism. Barth viewed nationalism as "a form of idolatry that is contrary to the Christian gospel" and hence nationalism must be "resisted in all its forms" (Moseley, 2013). Barth battled with the German Lutheran church, which cooperated in many respects with Nazi ideology (von Dehsen, 23).
As to Barth's neo-orthodoxy, Professor Douglas John Hall writes that even those that disagreed with Barth had to admit that his "new theology" was indeed new and worth attempting to understand what it entailed. Barth's neo-orthodoxy became "…the cutting edge of Christian thought throughout the first half…" of the 20th century (Hall, 1998). From roughly 1910 to 1960, Hall explains, Barth's views on Christianity and his rejection of so-called liberalism within the theologian community was among the more dominant viewpoints.
Barth's neo-orthodoxy represented the thought that the Bible was "not God's revelation, but the record of that revelation, which was Jesus Christ himself" (von Dehsen, 23). Barth believed that liberal views -- God could be understood through "reason or human religious experience" -- were incorrect; he asserted that "Religion is the enemy of faith" (von Dehsen, 23). In other words, Barth's no-orthodoxy rejected religious dogma and the literal translation of the Bible. This is a valid and believable stance, because the Bible was in fact written by humans, who were subjectively interpreting what they saw and heard and believed
Reinhold Niebuhr
Like Barth, Reinhold Niebuhr disagreed with Christian liberals on their views of human nature and their literal translation of the stories in the Bible. In the Introduction to Niebuhr's book, Reinhold Niebuhr: Theologian of Public Life, Larry Rasmussen points out that while Niebuhr showed an "unrelenting" opposition to Christian liberalism, ironically, he was "more liberal than neo-orthodox, and he knew it" (Rasmussen, 1981). He was aware, Rasmussen continues, that his attacks against Christian liberalism were not always qualified by the facts, and he was surprised when critics of his theological positions "lumped him with…neo-orthodox theologians like Emil Brunner and Karl Barth" (22).
"…I have never thought of myself in their category…whenever I read them or argue with them, Brunner for instance, I always feel that they are trying to fit life into a dogmatic mold…'" (Rasmussen, quoting Niebuhr, p. 22). In fact even though Niebuhr did have a different approach to neo-orthodoxy than Barth, Niebuhr often expressed "revulsion against acculturated religion" and he rejected the liberal view of "human perfectibility and the inevitability of progress" (Rasmussen, 23).
"Barth has long since ceased to have any effect on my thought," and Barth has become "…irrelevant to all Christians in the Western world…" (Niebuhr quoted by Thomas McCollough, 1963). According to McCollough, writing in The Journal of Religion, Niebuhr was influenced by Barth's theology in "earlier years" but in his later years Niebuhr rejected that theology completely, McCollough explains (49). There is no harm in changing one's position on...
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