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The Emergent Church: The Future of Christianity in a Postbourgeois World
English, German (translation)
- GenresTheology
127 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
20 people want to read
About the author
Johann Baptist Metz
69 books16 followersJohann Baptist Metz is a Catholic theologian. He is Ordinary Professor of Fundamental Theology, Emeritus, at Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster, Germany.
A student of Karl Rahner, he broke with Rahner's transcendental theology in a turn to a theology rooted in praxis. Metz is at the center of a school of political theology that strongly influenced Liberation Theology. He is one of the most influential post-Vatican II German theologians. His thought turns around fundamental attention to the suffering of others. The key categories of his theology are memory, solidarity, and narrative. Works in English include: The Emergent Church, Faith in History and Society, Poverty of Spirit, and Hope Against Hope. Collected articles can be found in A Passion for God: The Mystical-Political Dimension of Christianity, translated by Matthew Ashley and in John K. Downey, ed., Love's Strategy: The Political Theology of Johann Baptist Metz.
Fundamental to Metz's work is the concept of "dangerous memory," which relates to anamnesis in the Greek New Testament, a term which is central to the theology of the Eucharist. Metz speaks variously of "the dangerous memory of Jesus Christ," "the dangerous memory of freedom (in Jesus Christ)," the "dangerous memory of suffering," etc. One of the motivating factors for this category is Metz's determination, as a Christian theologian from Germany, to rework the whole of Christian theology from the ground up in light of the interruptive experience of the Holocaust. This need explains in part his break with Rahner, whose transcendental method appeals to historicity as a category but does not come to terms with actual history. Metz has been in dialogue with progressive Marxism, especially Walter Benjamin and the authors of the Frankfurt School. He levels a fierce critique of what he calls bourgeois Christianity and believes that the Christian Gospel has become less credible because it has become entangled with bourgeois religion. His work Faith in History and Society develops apologetics, or fundamental theology, from this perspective.
A student of Karl Rahner, he broke with Rahner's transcendental theology in a turn to a theology rooted in praxis. Metz is at the center of a school of political theology that strongly influenced Liberation Theology. He is one of the most influential post-Vatican II German theologians. His thought turns around fundamental attention to the suffering of others. The key categories of his theology are memory, solidarity, and narrative. Works in English include: The Emergent Church, Faith in History and Society, Poverty of Spirit, and Hope Against Hope. Collected articles can be found in A Passion for God: The Mystical-Political Dimension of Christianity, translated by Matthew Ashley and in John K. Downey, ed., Love's Strategy: The Political Theology of Johann Baptist Metz.
Fundamental to Metz's work is the concept of "dangerous memory," which relates to anamnesis in the Greek New Testament, a term which is central to the theology of the Eucharist. Metz speaks variously of "the dangerous memory of Jesus Christ," "the dangerous memory of freedom (in Jesus Christ)," the "dangerous memory of suffering," etc. One of the motivating factors for this category is Metz's determination, as a Christian theologian from Germany, to rework the whole of Christian theology from the ground up in light of the interruptive experience of the Holocaust. This need explains in part his break with Rahner, whose transcendental method appeals to historicity as a category but does not come to terms with actual history. Metz has been in dialogue with progressive Marxism, especially Walter Benjamin and the authors of the Frankfurt School. He levels a fierce critique of what he calls bourgeois Christianity and believes that the Christian Gospel has become less credible because it has become entangled with bourgeois religion. His work Faith in History and Society develops apologetics, or fundamental theology, from this perspective.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 8, 2024
A “THEOLOGICAL-POLITICAL TREATISE ON THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANITY”
Johann Baptist Metz (born 1928) is a Catholic priest and theologian, who is an Emeritus Professor of Fundamental Theology at Westphalian Wilhelms University in Germany. His political emphasis in theology strongly influenced Liberation Theology. His most influential book is 'Theology of the World.'
He wrote in the Preface to this 1980 book, “These talks… form an inner unity. The time sequence in which they are printed corresponds to a progressive unfolding of the one issue being considered here: namely, the beginnings of a Christianity that frees itself from the captivity of bourgeois religion and precisely thereby manifests its saving and inspiring power at the dawning of a postbourgeois age. In this age, the legitimate achievements of our bourgeois history of freedom will only be prevented from collapsing into a general barbarism if we ourselves at least cease to define our social and political identity---and also in a special way our Christian identity---without regard for the poverty, misery, and oppression of the poor peoples of this earth. In this sense, I understand this book as a brief theological-political treatise on the future of Christianity and of Christian existence in a world which is determined by growing oppositions and… by moral-political challenges which are becoming ever more acute and pressing.”
He observes, “Money is, after all, a binding symbol of bourgeois society and of the principle of exchange which determines this society to its very foundations… Money thus becomes the powerful mediation between the Christian virtues---which in bourgeois religion are restricted totally to the private sphere---and societal suffering; it becomes the QUASI-SACRAMENT of solidarity and sympathy.” (Pg. 7-8)
He notes, “Christians are convinced that … a moral change of heart cannot be kept going unless it is supported by religion. They start from the assumption that when religion disappears, not only among the so-called enlightened sections of the population but even among the people as a whole, so that among them as well the rumor of God’s existence is no longer believed, then the ‘soul’ of humanity itself dies and in the end there is only the apotheosis of banality and hatred: the individual will become a machine, a new kind of animal, or the inevitable victim of totalitarian tyranny… It is my view that nothing is more needed today than a moral and political imagination springing up from a messianic Christianity and capable of being more than just a copy of already accepted political and economic strategies.” (Pg. 10)
He proposes, “This second Reformation concerns all Christians… The needs of the gospel and the world will not let us indulge ourselves much longer with our one-sided, half-lame versions of Christianity. Yet before I say something about the bearers of this second Reformation, I have to speak about its thematic meaning and future aims… in terms of a threefold struggle for grace: *Invoking grace in the senses---the second Reformation, Protestant version. *Invoking grace in freedom---the second Reformation, Catholic version. *Invoking grace in politics---the second Reformation, world-political version… we speak of this second Reformation as grace returning to the senses, grace returning to freedom, and grace returning to politics.” (Pg. 50)
He acknowledges, “Admittedly, in my own country, these basic communities have not been held in very high esteem up till now… In our situation, the ideal of the ‘purely religious parish community’ is to be clung to, since the peace of such a community would only be disturbed by the introduction of societal conflicts on a grass-roots level, as if grace made social sufferings and those affected by them unseen, and not---for the very first time---visible, and as if grace in some feeble fashion were to incorporate everything into itself and be nonpartisan! The parish communities in my own country are paying a high price for this kind of prescribed indifference toward society.” (Pg. 63-64)
He explains, “My starting assumption is that this kind of peace will only be possible when, in the predominantly rich countries of this earth, in the so-called first world, we arrive at a decisive revision of our priorities in life. This means that the objective fear and despair that are spreading throughout this first world of ours must become at last a living, personal experience. In other words, we ourselves have to search for and attain---in both a theological and political sense---a ‘conversion of hearts.’ … such a conversion means, for us, something like a departure from the privileged situation of our first world---or, to put it another way, the departure from our bourgeois epoch.” (Pg. 71-72)
He asserts, “There are, of course, numerous difficulties and obstacles preventing this impulse to conversion and renewal, which comes to us out of the worldwide ecclesial situation of Catholicism, from being effective on a large scale in the church of this country… More and more, Catholicism itself has become here a form of bourgeois identity without really affecting it in terms of a possible transformation or a promised fulfillment… Christianity easily becomes the religious alibi for bourgeois innocence and the guarantee of a good conscience in a situation that really requires us to make the experience of guilt and failure in regard to these poor churches the very foundation of our everyday consciousness.” (Pg. 76-77)
He suggests, “This formation of identity takes place through THE GOSPEL. Not the gospel that has been stripped of its images and demythologized to suite the allegedly unsurpassable truisms of modern society. Their gospel is being taken instead in a shockingly liberal fashion… instead they set out under the exhortation of the gospel so to change their situation that this situation itself might better fit the spirit and the prophecy of such a gospel. And in this fashion their Christian identity which has been awakened and formed through the gospel has made them at the same time subjects of their political liberation.” (Pg. 101)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying Metz, or contemporary political theology.
Johann Baptist Metz (born 1928) is a Catholic priest and theologian, who is an Emeritus Professor of Fundamental Theology at Westphalian Wilhelms University in Germany. His political emphasis in theology strongly influenced Liberation Theology. His most influential book is 'Theology of the World.'
He wrote in the Preface to this 1980 book, “These talks… form an inner unity. The time sequence in which they are printed corresponds to a progressive unfolding of the one issue being considered here: namely, the beginnings of a Christianity that frees itself from the captivity of bourgeois religion and precisely thereby manifests its saving and inspiring power at the dawning of a postbourgeois age. In this age, the legitimate achievements of our bourgeois history of freedom will only be prevented from collapsing into a general barbarism if we ourselves at least cease to define our social and political identity---and also in a special way our Christian identity---without regard for the poverty, misery, and oppression of the poor peoples of this earth. In this sense, I understand this book as a brief theological-political treatise on the future of Christianity and of Christian existence in a world which is determined by growing oppositions and… by moral-political challenges which are becoming ever more acute and pressing.”
He observes, “Money is, after all, a binding symbol of bourgeois society and of the principle of exchange which determines this society to its very foundations… Money thus becomes the powerful mediation between the Christian virtues---which in bourgeois religion are restricted totally to the private sphere---and societal suffering; it becomes the QUASI-SACRAMENT of solidarity and sympathy.” (Pg. 7-8)
He notes, “Christians are convinced that … a moral change of heart cannot be kept going unless it is supported by religion. They start from the assumption that when religion disappears, not only among the so-called enlightened sections of the population but even among the people as a whole, so that among them as well the rumor of God’s existence is no longer believed, then the ‘soul’ of humanity itself dies and in the end there is only the apotheosis of banality and hatred: the individual will become a machine, a new kind of animal, or the inevitable victim of totalitarian tyranny… It is my view that nothing is more needed today than a moral and political imagination springing up from a messianic Christianity and capable of being more than just a copy of already accepted political and economic strategies.” (Pg. 10)
He proposes, “This second Reformation concerns all Christians… The needs of the gospel and the world will not let us indulge ourselves much longer with our one-sided, half-lame versions of Christianity. Yet before I say something about the bearers of this second Reformation, I have to speak about its thematic meaning and future aims… in terms of a threefold struggle for grace: *Invoking grace in the senses---the second Reformation, Protestant version. *Invoking grace in freedom---the second Reformation, Catholic version. *Invoking grace in politics---the second Reformation, world-political version… we speak of this second Reformation as grace returning to the senses, grace returning to freedom, and grace returning to politics.” (Pg. 50)
He acknowledges, “Admittedly, in my own country, these basic communities have not been held in very high esteem up till now… In our situation, the ideal of the ‘purely religious parish community’ is to be clung to, since the peace of such a community would only be disturbed by the introduction of societal conflicts on a grass-roots level, as if grace made social sufferings and those affected by them unseen, and not---for the very first time---visible, and as if grace in some feeble fashion were to incorporate everything into itself and be nonpartisan! The parish communities in my own country are paying a high price for this kind of prescribed indifference toward society.” (Pg. 63-64)
He explains, “My starting assumption is that this kind of peace will only be possible when, in the predominantly rich countries of this earth, in the so-called first world, we arrive at a decisive revision of our priorities in life. This means that the objective fear and despair that are spreading throughout this first world of ours must become at last a living, personal experience. In other words, we ourselves have to search for and attain---in both a theological and political sense---a ‘conversion of hearts.’ … such a conversion means, for us, something like a departure from the privileged situation of our first world---or, to put it another way, the departure from our bourgeois epoch.” (Pg. 71-72)
He asserts, “There are, of course, numerous difficulties and obstacles preventing this impulse to conversion and renewal, which comes to us out of the worldwide ecclesial situation of Catholicism, from being effective on a large scale in the church of this country… More and more, Catholicism itself has become here a form of bourgeois identity without really affecting it in terms of a possible transformation or a promised fulfillment… Christianity easily becomes the religious alibi for bourgeois innocence and the guarantee of a good conscience in a situation that really requires us to make the experience of guilt and failure in regard to these poor churches the very foundation of our everyday consciousness.” (Pg. 76-77)
He suggests, “This formation of identity takes place through THE GOSPEL. Not the gospel that has been stripped of its images and demythologized to suite the allegedly unsurpassable truisms of modern society. Their gospel is being taken instead in a shockingly liberal fashion… instead they set out under the exhortation of the gospel so to change their situation that this situation itself might better fit the spirit and the prophecy of such a gospel. And in this fashion their Christian identity which has been awakened and formed through the gospel has made them at the same time subjects of their political liberation.” (Pg. 101)
This book will be of keen interest to those studying Metz, or contemporary political theology.
December 9, 2017
"The Emergent Church" marks my first foray into Metz' work. (I'm not sure why it's the first of his texts I've chosen to read. An Amazon recommendation, I believe). It reads as a nice little survey of his developing ideas regarding political theologies of liberation and the political-mystical dialectic.
Because this book is a series of essays, the latter essays are a bit repetitive. Ideas are restated, sometimes word for word. That being said, it's rather fascinating to see how Metz' theology remains consistent, despite diverse contexts (One example being a speech in honor of Ernesto Cardenal.) Ch. 3, "Bread of Survival" speaks clearly and directly to Eucharistic/Table-centric churches awaiting/inaugurating radical transformation. Whether one is Catholic, Episcopal, or Disciples of Christ (my denomination) this chapter presents a call for liberation couched in familiar institutional/theological language.
I'll have to read more Metz!
Because this book is a series of essays, the latter essays are a bit repetitive. Ideas are restated, sometimes word for word. That being said, it's rather fascinating to see how Metz' theology remains consistent, despite diverse contexts (One example being a speech in honor of Ernesto Cardenal.) Ch. 3, "Bread of Survival" speaks clearly and directly to Eucharistic/Table-centric churches awaiting/inaugurating radical transformation. Whether one is Catholic, Episcopal, or Disciples of Christ (my denomination) this chapter presents a call for liberation couched in familiar institutional/theological language.
I'll have to read more Metz!
January 28, 2017
...A well meant reflection but one which moves towards a ridiculous idolatry towards the Holocaust, as the key moment in history. To contextualise why this is so pernicious I would recommend Dr Paul Gottfried. Likewise, if you wish to see a properly incarnational Theology of Time and Eternity, beyond sacralising an epoch, see Staniloae.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews