NEW FAILURE OF NERVE
17
let us look for it elsewhere. Against Niebuhr's myth of a private
and mysterious absolute, we counterpose the public and self–
critical absolute of scientific method. By evaluating claims in the
light of their causes and consequences, it makes clear the interests
from which they spring, and the meaning of what they propose.
By guiding us to the construction of a social order whose institu–
tions provide for the negotiation and compromise of claims on
the basis of the completest knowledge available, it promises not
absolute security but greater security. It does not pretend to make
men gods but to treat more intelligently the problem always at
hand. It is not incompatible with action, even with revolutionary
action on a large scale. Nothing is won forever but something is
always won. How to get men to accept this absolute method–
and to test it by its fruits, not only in the realm of nature but of
human affairs-is a specific problem of scientific politics ar.d
education concerning which theology can tell us nothing.*
The Tail Sting of Eternity
Niebuhr's theology has a grand irrelevance to the specific
patterns and problems of social life, although psychologically it
breathes a defeatism more congenial to Toryism than to his own
political progressivism. The same cannot be said of other varieties
of theological doctrine which are tied up with a Church as Nie–
buhr's is not and which take the historical content of revelation
more literally than he does. This is most evident in the social
and political implications of Roman Catholicism.
Political events bearing on the prospects of its survival have
made it .necessary for the Catholic Church to strike a new tune in
democratic countries. Its leading spokesmen are seizing every
occasion to assur.e us that the last and best defence of democracy
and freedom is a Christian social order. By "freedom," they
explain, is meant "freedom in its true Christian sense," and by
"Christian," they are careful not to explain, is always meant
"Catholic." Any catalogue of Church activities in these countries
will reveal that it is increasing in power and influence. It is in
the van of attack against the best liberal traditions of American
culture and education, particularly in the field of education.*
•For a more extended critique of Niebuhr,
cf.
my
Social Change and Original Sin,
New Leader, Nov. 11, 1941.
•For a detailed examination see
1'he Bertrand Russell Case,
edited by John Dewey
and H. M. Kallen, N. Y. (1941) 227 pp. This almost completely unreviewed book
contains articles,
in
addition to those of the editors, by Morris R. Cohen, Walton
Hamilton, Emory Guy Shipler, Richard McKeon, Carleton Washburne and others.
