Spiritual musings: Moral man and immoral society

Have been spending the past couple of weeks reading Reinhold Niebuhr's Moral Man and Immoral Society - a book that is ranked among the top ten religious books of the 20th century. It's a dense - but highly rewarding - read (in fact, at the time of writing I have not yet finished the book) and one has to be familiar with various political theories (from Marxist to Stalinist to Capitalism) to understand and appreciate the dialectical tension that underline Niebuhr's arguments. His basic premise: that individuals have a moral code which makes the actions of collective man an outrage to their conscience. In other words, Niebuhr argues that man is morally capable of goodness when left to himself, but in a technological civilization, he is forced - or at least, compelled - to obey the logic of a system that dehumanizes/destroys the very moral fabric of which he is endowed with.

It is very difficult to argue against Niebuhr's central thesis - parts of which resonate with Jacques Ellul's Meaning of the City . Unless one is a techno-optimist (which I am not), one will see the reality of Niebuhr's arguments in daily life. Nevertheless, i would caution against going down the Orwellian/Huxleyan route upon which a dystopic society must be the only necessary outcome. Why do I say so?

It is my belief that the kingdom of God will prevail, not in the militaristic, political or economic sense, but in a spiritual one. The victory of CHrist on the Cross of Calvary means that the final destination of the Christian is one of hope, not of despair. The re-creation of the fallen world upon Christ's second coming will not take place under the backdrop of an Armageddon war, but one that retains a spiritual continuity with the present. WIthout going into eschatological details, I would like to simply say that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church".

However the church will only be able to stand her ground if and only if she remains faithful to her calling as the Bride of Christ. Orthodoxy, unless backed by a true spirituality can only lead us into traditionalism - upon which the church will capitulate under the weight of the postmodern attack. On the other hand, a church without the belt of truth upon which it can gird herself with, will also crumble like a house built on sand - once the social conditions upon which it has aligned itself with become passe.

The true church of Christ then is one that bears witness to the reality of a Christian faith that is robust, realistic, authentic and ultimately, true. The demonstration of Christian love in a society that is increasingly searching for meaning, the willingness to sacrifice oneself in order to redeem others (as opposed to destroying others) and the testimony of a life well-lived - all these continue to remain hallmarks of true spirituality upon which we can live as shining stars - blameless and faultless - in a fallen world.