Genial Swiss Theologian Karl Earth added a cubit or two to his international stature by denouncing Hitler in 1933, when most good Christians were waiting to see how events would turn out. But Earth’s postwar casualness about Communism’s threat to Christianity has puzzled many a Protestant. In this week’s Christian Century, the Rev. Hendrik Hauge, chaplain to Norway’s famed Bishop Berggrav, attacks Earth’s present political position.
Don’t Rush. “How is a Christian to act toward a state which claims to be a friend of the church but … is bound sooner or later to reveal itself as an enemy of the church?” When this question was put to Earth, reports Hauge, he replied that “in such a situation, it would be important for the Christian to preserve his calm and his sense of humor . . . When a state begins to exhibit the marks that Christians recognize as belonging to the Beast from the Abyss, they must not rush to embrace the extreme alternatives of submission or martyrdom.”
Earth maintains, says Hauge, that the church’s past shortcomings in the social field forbid her to speak out against wrongs committed by modern regimes. “Thus, it would seem, it is no longer God who gives the church the right to speak; rather, the church must justify her right to proclaim the truth in a concrete situation by her social and moral merits.”
No Temptation. Barth has insisted that Communism presents a far different problem to Christianity than did Naziism (TIME, Aug. 16, 1948). To support Naziism, he said, was a “temptation” for Christians; the Nazis invited support with a fake veneer of Christianity. But since the Communists are frankly opposed to religion, and Christians are hardly tempted to endorse Communism, Barth feels that the church is not obliged to add its voice to the anti-Communist denunciations of politicians.
Retorts Chaplain Hauge: “Even if it be true that Communism presents no temptation, that does not mean that Communism is not a danger—a danger to man himself. It does not make much difference whether one fails because one is seduced by temptation or because one bows to superior force. Communism does not offer itself as a new edition of Christianity; but it might very well induce, or seduce, the church to deliver a new edition of herself. If the church is brought under control by the new rulers, there is no need to destroy her utterly.”
Like any orthodox Christian, Hauge agrees with Barth that no historical revolution can be compared to that brought to mankind by Jesus Christ. But he points out that the historical “decisiveness of Christ ought not to be proclaimed in such a way that all other events and situations are stripped of significance. To view change in the light of eternity is dangerous if it issues in the belief that all state orders are equally good. The judgment of Christ does not mean a general leveling of all human relationships.”
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