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The Church and Social Responsibility Southern Methodist University SMU Scholar Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations Religious Studies Spring 5-18-2019 The Church and Social Responsibility: Contributions to Contemporary Social Ethics from the Ecumenical Social Method of the Oxford Conference on Church, Community, and State of 1937 Gary B. MacDonald Southern Methodist University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.smu.edu/religious_studies_etds Part of the Christianity Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, Missions and World Christianity Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons Recommended Citation MacDonald, Gary B., "The Church and Social Responsibility: Contributions to Contemporary Social Ethics from the Ecumenical Social Method of the Oxford Conference on Church, Community, and State of 1937" (2019). Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations. 12. https://scholar.smu.edu/religious_studies_etds/12 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Religious Studies at SMU Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of SMU Scholar. For more information, please visit http://digitalrepository.smu.edu. THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: CONTRIBUTIONS TO CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL ETHICS FROM THE ECUMENICAL METHOD OF THE OXFORD CONFERENCE ON CHURCH, COMMUNITY, AND STATE OF 1937 Approved by: ____________________________________ Dr. Robin W. Lovin Professor Emeritus in Ethics ____________________________________ Dr. Charles E. Curran Professor of Human Values ____________________________________ Dr. Gary J. Dorrien Professor of Social Ethics Union Theological Seminary ____________________________________ Dr. Rebekah L. Miles Professor of Ethics and Practical Theology THE CHURCH AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: CONTRIBUTIONS TO CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL ETHICS FROM THE ECUMENICAL METHOD OF THE OXFORD CONFERENCE ON CHURCH, COMMUNITY, AND STATE OF 1937 A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of Dedman College Southern Methodist University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in Religious Studies by Gary Bruce MacDonald B.A., Journalism, Northeastern University M.Div., Southern Methodist University May 18, 2019 Copyright (2019) Gary Bruce MacDonald All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am deeply grateful to my advisor, Robin Lovin, Southern Methodist University’s Cary M. Maguire University Professor Emeritus in Ethics. As dean of SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, he invited one of his senior administrators to consider the possibility of graduate studies. Thus began a journey – albeit longer than planned – buffeted by tragic realities of life and the demands of administrative vocation, and tempered by grace and joy along the way. Dr. Lovin throughout has remained a steadfast teacher, interlocutor, mentor and confidant. With such an extended journey, there is a multitude that has accompanied me. I regret that I cannot list them all, but I am in debt to each. I am grateful for my committee. Charles Curran, Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values, and Rebekah Miles, professor of Ethics and Practical Theology, have been wise teachers, as has Gary Dorrien, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, who even consented to a serendipitous meeting on the New York City Subway. I appreciate the directors of SMU’s Graduate Program in Religious Studies – William Babcock, Charles Wood, Dr. Miles and Roy Heller – and the program’s awarding me the Schubert Ogden Fellowship for Academic Excellence in Theology, which – along with an academic grant from the Clan Donald (USA) Foundation and a subsidy from the Missional Wisdom Foundation – funded my research travels. Credit is also due to other teachers in the program, including Johann Elverskog, Bruce Marshall and Joerg Rieger, and to former Perkins dean William Lawrence, who allowed space for this work among my administrative responsibilities. The longstanding support and trust of Elaine iv Heath, former dean of the Divinity School at Duke University, and her insights into missional ecclesiology, were particularly helpful in the project’s final stages. Others who have provided insight include SMU’s William Abraham, Joseph Allen, and John Holbert; graduate program colleagues Kevin Carnahan, Peter Jones, Oleg Makariev, Joshua Mauldin, and David Watson; and students, clergy, and laity with whom I had the privilege of teaching and learning at Perkins and Trinity Theological College in Singapore. I appreciate the staffs of Perkins’ Bridwell Library, Library of Congress Manuscript Division, New College Library at the University of Edinburgh, and Duke Divinity’s library. One gentleman at Geneva’s World Council of Churches Archives exceeded duty in helping me get to a hospital with a ruptured disc. Lonnie Brooks, Ricky Ho, and Herman Shastri arranged for presentations on this material in Anchorage and Kuala Lumpur. Ted Campbell invited me to collaborate on a related entry for the Oxford Handbook of Ecumenical Studies, and Dr. Miles provided opportunity to contribute to the Dictionary of Scripture and Ethics. Barry Hughes and Mark Chancey have read and commented on various pieces of this work. Judith Cannon, Craig Gilliam, Kathryn Peterson, and Gina Hiatt’s web group have provided valuable coaching. Wendy J. Miller paused her own writing to proofread drafts, along with Neill Caldwell. Thomas and Gayle Kerr opened their Cape Cod cottage for a winter writing retreat, and Tracy Anne Allred and Dr. Chancey welcomed me to their Dallas home as I prepared for my defense. The longest list comprises colleagues and friends from SMU, Duke, the Brigid’s Porch community, and the “Neighborhood,” whose graces and gifts sustained my work in countless ways. Roberta Cox was there to push from the start, and proofread at the end. Todd Rasberry defined what it means to be a companion. I offer gratitude as well to Randy Bell, the late William Bryan, Tonya Burton, Lynne Caldwell, Lucy Cobbe, Larry Duggins, Melissa Fretwell, v Pamela Goolsby, Cherice Graham, Dina Helderman, Pamela Hogan, Robert Hunt, Hillsman Jackson, Nathan Kirkpatrick, Sandra Mitchell, Connie Nelson, Blanche Overton, Rebecca Payan, Carol Sparks, Dan Struble, and Jeannie Treviño-Teddlie. I am also thankful for the formative grace offered by many United Methodist congregations including Massachusetts’ Covenant-St. Andrew in Worcester and Maple Street in Lynn; and Texas’ First in Red Oak, and Grace and Northaven in Dallas. My family also has been a constant support. My sons – Jeffrey, Jonathan, and Joshua – grew up with this project and made many sacrifices. My stepson, Brynn Yoder, has now survived both his mother’s and my doctorates. My grandson, Maxwell, reminds me that all real life is meeting. Three of my greatest teachers did not live to see this project complete – my grandfather, Walter Bohmann, and my parents, Bruce and Carolyn. My extended family has offered abundant grace. Thanks for listening Danielle Davis MacDonald; Pamela MacDonald and Laurie Clark; the extended Miller family – Edmond, Paul and David, Mark and Wendy S., David and Julie, Scott and Laura, Judy, and Bonita; and Jean and Michael O’Leary. All this wisdom and encouragement – woefully unrepresented by the deficits in this work for which I remain responsible – were signs of God’s Kingdom come. My deepest thanks goes to my wife, Heidi Miller, who has steadfastly endured with me. She has sharpened me with her Mennonite theology and buoyed me by her deep faith, embodying the reality of the responsive Thou by which I know and am known, love and am loved. It is to her that I dedicate these pages. vi MacDonald, Gary Bruce B.A., Journalism, Northeastern University M.Div., Southern Methodist University The Church and Social Responsibility: Contributions to Contemporary Social Ethics from the Ecumenical Method of the Oxford Conference on Church, Community, and State of 1937 Advisor: Dr. Robin W. Lovin Doctor of Philosophy conferred May 18, 2019 Dissertation completed May 1, 2019 Cultural and political realities, and doctrinal differences among faith traditions challenge unified theological and ecclesial contribution to political dialogue. Within the work of the Oxford Conference of the Universal Christian Council of Life and Work on Church, Community and State of 1937, organized by Joseph Oldham, are elements of an applied understanding of social responsibility, offering resources to enable such contribution. Here, I call this “Oxford Responsibility,” defined as a society in which its members and institutions act in accordance with human value and freedom, in obedience to the will of God, toward the achievement of justice within the limits and contingencies of human finitude, culture and history. Contributors, threatened by secularism and totalitarianism, built upon the thought of Max Weber, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Martin Buber regarding ethics and responsibility, and were influenced by the Christian realism of Reinhold Niebuhr. Drawing on Emil Brunner, they outlined a Christian anthropology positing dignity and freedom to the human actor. With Paul Tillich and others, the Conference countered the idea of progressive history, positing history as the location of human responsibility, where human action has consequence. These actions are vii judged against the suprahistorical ideal of the Kingdom of God. The Conference bounded the church’s responsibility within society to the interpretation of
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