Status Confessionis and Social Commentary from the Current Church

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Status Confessionis and Social Commentary from the Current Church

Throughout my ongoing investigation of the interactions between religious values and social behavior, I have become thoroughly intrigued with the role of the institutional church in the realm of social commentary and criticism, as well as political activism. That there is a long standing concept within the church tradition relating to my curiosity is not terribly surprising after just an overview of the language that sociology theory has applied to religious bodies. The role of the church in relation to society is divided into two basic categories of action- that of the “priest,” and that of the “prophet.” (Download a PDF file of a pamphlet eslpaining the terminolgoy of "Priest & Prophet.") The former describes the conserving, nurturing actions of the church towards broader social structures, the latter, criticism and the call to move away from corruption towards righteousness. When acting as prophet in the most extreme sense, the church is considered to be in a time of, what is called, status confessionis - acknowledging a state of social injustice so abhorrent that the church must actively interject its influence into even the secular sphere and demand repentance and reform. Nazism and apartheid in South Africa are the two most often cited examples of church bodies acting in status confessionis (Schuurman 100).

What intrigues me about this idea is the reserve with which it is invoked, judging by the tone of the passage where the concept is addressed in the book Vocation by Douglas Shuurman. Considering the broader historical-theological context of the issue, including Brunner's injunction against “‘the disastrous dogma that various ‘orders' are not subj...

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...r place in the kingdom of God.

On the other hand, as long as the hungry are being fed and the despised loved, God's hand is moving in the world. So I come full circle to find that we must faithfully remain amidst the brokenness and corruption, fix what we can, and be prepared to let God act as God will, as I, and each of us, pursue our own vocations and encourage others to do the same. As theologian Walter Brueggeman has written, “What God does first and best and most is to trust his people with their moment in history. He trusts them to do what must be done for the sake of the whole community.” So be it. Amen.

Works Cited

Buechler, Steven M., & F. Kurt Cylke, Jr. Social Movements: Perspectives and Issues . Toronto: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1997.

Schuurman, Douglas J. Vocation . Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004.

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