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Revelation and Relativism in the Theology of H. Richard Niebuhr

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

Alfred J. Ede
Alfred J. Ede*
Affiliation:
Loras College
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Abstract

H. Richard Niebuhr's theological perspective was formed at a time when Protestantism was adjusting to a radically altered position on the American landscape, similar in many ways to the present American Catholic predicament. This essay initiates a dialogue between Niebuhr and Catholic theology at a point that is key to his thought, the theology of revelation. The positions of Niebuhr and Vatican II's Dei Verbum, although developed within different theological frameworks, provide a basis for beneficial discussion. Both view revelation as the self-disclosure of God in Jesus Christ to an historical community that is the bearer of that revelatory experience. For Niebuhr, however, revelation of the God of radical monotheism elicits a faith response to the center of being and value that shatters the boundaries of all closed societies and redirects all moral considerations. His development of the theological implications of historical relativism offers a corrective for the Church's henotheistic tendencies to distort its own meaning and mission by fashioning a closed society. Vatican II took steps to extend the vision of the Church beyond the confining barriers of past ecclesiologies. Niebuhr's theology provides one possible framework within which those first steps can be explored toward a more truly catholic understanding of faith.

Type
Articles
Information
Horizons , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , Spring 1977 , pp. 27 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © The College Theology Society 1977

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References

1 May, Henry F., “The Recovery of American Religious History,” American Historical Review, LXX (October, 1964), p. 79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 For a collection of essays by Robert Bellah, Sidney Mead, Will Herbert, et al., which discusses various aspects of civil religion, read American Civil Religion, ed. Richey, Russell E. and Jones, Donald G. (New York: Harper & Row, 1974)Google Scholar. An account of the civil religion discussion at the Religious Education Association meeting is contained in “Civil Religion: ‘Sanctifying U.S. Life?’” National Catholic Reporter, 12 Dec, 1975, pp. 1, 14Google Scholar.

3 For an excellent presentation of the nineteenth century crusade for a Protestant America, read Handy, Robert T., A Christian America: Protestant Hopes and Historical Realities (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971)Google Scholar. The disillusionment which followed the war is treated in Ernst, Eldon G., Moment of Truth For Protestant America: Interchurch Campaigns Following WorJd War One (Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1974)Google Scholar, and Handy, Robert T., “The American Religious Depression, 1925-1935,” Church History, XXIX (March, 1960), pp. 3–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 For a comparison of the social theology of the leading spokesman of the Social Gospel movement with Vatican II, read Ede, Alfred J., “The Social Theologies of Walter Rauschenbusch and Vatican II in Dialogue,” in Foundations, XVIII (July-Sept., 1975), pp. 198–208Google Scholar.

5 Analyses of Niebuhr's theology can be found in Libertus Hoedemaker, A., The Theology of H. Richard Niebuhr (Philadelphia and Boston: Pilgrim Press, 1970)Google Scholar; and Fowler, James W., To See the Kingdom: the Theological Vision of H. Richard Niebuhr (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1974)Google Scholar. For discussion of revelation and faith by Catholic theologians, read Mackey, James P., Problems of Religious Faith (Dublin: Helicon, 1972;Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Moran, Gabriel, The Present Revelation (New York: Herder and Herder, 1972)Google Scholar; and Dulles, Avery, Revelation Theology: A History (New York: Herder & Herder, 1969)Google Scholar.

6 Niebuhr, H. Richard, The Meaning of Revelation (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1970Google Scholar; first published, New York: The Macmillan Co., 1941), pp. 110-111.

7 Ibid., pp. 30, 128ff.

8 All Vatican II texts are taken from The Documents of Vatican II, Abbott, Walter M., general editor (New York: The American Press, 1966)Google Scholar. Scriptural references have been omitted from the texts for brevity.

9 Ratzinger's, Joseph commentary on article 4 of Dei Verbum in Vol. III of Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II, Vorgrimler, Herbert, general editor (New York: Herder & Herder, 1969), p. 175Google Scholar.

10 Niebuhr, , Revelation, p. 112Google Scholar. Also read Niebuhr, , Radical Monotheism and Western-Culture (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1970: first published, 1960), pp. 38–48Google Scholar.

11 Radical Monotheism, p. 42.

12 James P. Mackey discusses the importance of an investigation of the faith of Jesus in “The Theology of Faith: A Bibliographical Survey (And More),” in Horizons, 2 (Fall, 1975), pp. 234–237Google Scholar.

13 Niebuhr, , Revelation, p. 53Google Scholar.

14 Ibid., pp. 30-31.

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16 Niebuhr, , Revelation, p. 113Google Scholar. For a discussion of Christ as symbolic form, read his essay “Metaphors and Morals” in The Responsible Self (New York and London: Harper & Row, 1963), pp. 149–160Google Scholar. Compare with Baum's, Gregory chapter “Symbol and Theology” in Religion and Alienation: A Theological Reading of Sociology (New York: Paulist Press, 1975), pp. 238–265Google Scholar.

17 Niebuhr, , Revelation, p. 80Google Scholar.

18 Ibid., p. 99.

19 Ratzinger's, Read commentary on article 8 of Dei Verbum in Commentary, III, pp. 189–190Google Scholar, and on article 11 of Gaudium et Spes, V, pp. 116–117Google Scholar.

20 Niebuhr, , Revelation, pp. 59–66Google Scholar.

21 Ibid., pp. 63-64.

22 Ibid., p. 133. See also p. 123.

23 Van Leeuwen, Peter, “The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation,” in Man as Man and Believer, Concilium, XXI (New York: Paulist Press, 1967), p. 11Google Scholar.

24 Niebuhr, , Radical Monotheism, pp. 16–63Google Scholar. Also read Baum, , Religion and Alienation, pp. 62–84Google Scholar.

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26 Ratzinger, , Commentary, V, p. 119Google Scholar.

27 Niebuhr, , Revelation, p. 13Google Scholar.

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29 Niebuhr, , Revelation, p. 29Google Scholar.