Gospel

did you know that one of Dr King's favorite theologians, Reinhold Niebuhr, doubted the power of so-called transforming Christian love? well he did. and he did so in a way that reminds me of debates I have had with Kate and others. this is from David Garrow's first chapter in 'Bearing the Cross:'

"King held [the view that 'the universe is basically friendly] until he encountered the writings of Reinhold Niebuhr during his two senior-year courses with Kenneth Smith. Niebuhr was a favorite of Smith's and one of the sharpest critics of Rauschenbusch's optimism. Niebuhr believed that Rauschenbusch's emphasis upon the power of Christian love to advance the cause of social justice was misplaced and naive, that 'it did not measure adequately the power and persistence of man's self-concern. [hu]Man's selfishness, Niebuhr had stressed in a 1932 book, Moral Man and Immoral Society, was the major barrier to justice in society, and men in privileged groups were the most persistent in obstructing any efforts to improve society."

This next part is harder for me to understand, but its a part of this philosophy about why people choose themselves. Garrow continues:

"'Disproportion of power in society is the real root of social injustice,' Niebuhr argued and 'economic power is more basic than political power.' Because of these persistent inequalities, 'relations between groups must therefore always be predominantly political rather than ethical.' Social-gospel thinking was blind to these painful truths about modern society."

Essentially, I read this as saying: people, especially in groups, must be concerned with securing more resources for themselves before they are concerned with showing their love for humanity and that this impulse denies the optimism and naivete of some, including what came to be known as the transforming love espoused by Dr King (in his early? or maybe all of his years).

And the idea that love is not inherently transformational (or even contagious regardless of transformation) strikes down one of my main theories and hopes for society and my potential contributions to it.

What do you think?