Status Confessionis and Social Commentary from the Current Church Ess

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 condemnation, as well as governmental activism. That there is a considerable standing concept within the church tradition relating to my curiosity is non terribly surprising after that 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 oracle. (Download a PDF charge up 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 proph et 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 sluice the secular sphere and demand repentance and reform. Nazism and apartheid in southwestern 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 tactile property of the passage where the concept is addressed in the book avocation by Douglas Shuurman. Considering the broader historical-theological context of the issue, including Brunners injunction against the disastrous dogma that various orders are not subj... ...r place in the kingdom of divinity fudge. On the other grant, as long as the hungry are being fed and the despised loved, Gods hand is moving in the world. So I come full stripe to find that we must faithfully remain amidst the brokenness and corruption, fix what we can, and be brisk to let God act as God will, as I, and individually 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 wholly 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.