The just revolution of modern Christian radicalism

Abstract

Over a period of two decades, a growing number of Christian clerics and lay persons have developed a critical perspective in regard to the social dynamics of capitalist nations in the First and Third Worlds. This perspective has prompted many to support guerrilla groups in Latin America and southern Africa, some even joining revolutionary groups to carry out violent actions against repressive political systems in these areas. Others have protested, and organized peaceful resistance, against these same governments, as well as the governments and policies of developed capitalist nations. Some radical activists and thinkers have at tempted to draw their churches into direct confrontation with the sometimes harshly repressive systems they have come to reject. Others have at tempted to develop an intellectual justification for this sort of political stance, forging "theologies of revolution and liberation" in hope of breaking with a religious tradition which has placed barriers in the way of those Christians who would resist temporal injustice [ 1 ]. The purpose of this paper is to make an initial assessment of the degree to which these radical Christians have been successful in shaping such a justification. Although the vast majority of radical Christians would not refer to themselves as Marxist, their basic analysis of life in First and Third World societies, and the relationship between developed and lesser developed nations within the orbit of the world trade system, resembles a Marxian-like method of explanation [2]. From their point of view, capitalist society, with its severe class divisions, necessarily results in economic exploitation, with the privileges of the elites provided by the toil of the masses. Blocked life chances, political powerlessness, and psychological alienation are pervasive in social orders where democratic facades mask bureaucratic regimentation, and the ideological hegemony of ruling classes inculcates a near-fatalistic cultural theme of acceptance of the status quo, blocking the development of alterna-