Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)

1968-06-01 / 2. szám

HOP Vol XX Special Number

1968 No 2- 105 -(07809)

challenged sway over us in Europe for centuries and blocked the way of Christian thought and action ever to take up a clear and positive attitude to the revolutionary processes and patterns of conduct in human history. This inhibition had the devastating effect that Christianity sided with the reigning powers of history, allying itself with the past, ard that it be care progressively possible to identify it with its own past or with the political and social post tense of a certain social systoa, And all this has cost in Europe to Christianity, to the church and to theological thinking the loss of creative possibilities* the freedom cf movement and solidarity frith the man cf our ticfel Hence we must, right at the beginning, resolutely reject this kind cf Christian conservatism".84).

d) Focal Points in the Theological Discussion of Revolution

We have, so far reviewed the past ard present of Christian thinking with reference to the problem of revolutionary trarsformationc After this assessment of the situation of social ethics, we should like to point to the most important aspects of the problem as they appear to us, Christian theologians living in a society that underwent and is still undergoing a revolutionary transformation. In our opinion, the ethical problem of revolution has today four basic aspects: l) the meaning of revolution in theological ethics, 2) God's world-governing work and the revolutionary transrformation, 3) the question; • is revolution the churches concern or a secular affair? ard 4) the-question concerning the Christian's participation in the revolutionary transformation*, Let us take up these points0

Our first question concerns the ethical meaning of revolution, Beside the aforesaid social roots, one of the conditioning factors of the traditional anti-revolutionary stance of Christians has undoubtedly lain in the 'fact that, in most cases, the concomitant phenomena of radical revolutionary changes — often of repugnant aspect — have hidden the significance cf the essential and long-overdue changes actually taking place in the depth the genuine social and national revolutions*. This thinking is reflected in the afore-quoted statement of the latest papal encyclical on social prob la, a: reyolution tries to dispel the actual evil with what is a greater evilc

This is, however, a one-sided view. There are at least two important factors that argue against it. First, armed conflict and bloodshed do not necessarily attend even the most radical revolutionary changec Revolutionary transformations, radical, changes have taken place in our modern world without bloodshed and destruction. The "non-violent revolution" of the North A- merican negroes once under the leadership of the late Martin Luther King is the best example of the efforts in our tire to effect basic social and political changes by peaceful means9

The second ás the consideration that, although the personal and material sacrifices attending the abrupt historical chinges nay be very painful and, from the angle of Christian ethics, should possibly be avoided,it