But many thinkers, Christian and otherwise, have found it lacking in some important ways. For one thing, while it can get you “there,” it does little or nothing to guide you in what “there” is. Unless I know where I am going, how will I know what is really getting me there? Most of us have some idea, perhaps unexamined, of where we want to go: to be president, discover the cure for cancer, get rich, or something else. Pragmatism gives us no guidance here.
Another problem that I encounter as a human being, where pragmatism might disappoint me, is that I must face the fact it is not only my surroundings, but also my own inner orientation, that keeps me from doing what is best practically. However noble my goals may be, my inner fears and disorientation may keep me from realizing them. Or they may actually twist me into seeking goods that are harmful.
In these regards, American pragmatism may see Christianity simply as a tool to achieve success, no matter how that success is defined or understood.
Another aspect of the American experience is pluralism. Historically, we have attracted a menagerie of peoples from elsewhere, as few nations on Earth have done. We have welcomed, or at least tolerated, nationalities and religions from everywhere. “Give me your tired and your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” We have made a home for persecuted cultures and religions, and for the most part have been able to integrate them, and “Americanize” them into our society. This stands at the core of our national greatness.
But this laudable success has come at a price. So many peoples living and working peacefully together has meant that certain values must be adjusted, or even abandoned, to keep peace.
We can now look at two additional views of our national life that help us to survive at an optimum level: relativism and secularism. To what extent these are compatible with any kind of Christianity is questionable.
Relativism: In order to “get along” in a society that welcomes and contains so many different lifestyles and religions, Christian and other, it seems appropriate to adopt a kind of relativism. This approach maintains that no truth is absolute. All can claim only relative truth. It is also consistent with the basic American democratic creed that each person has the right to make up his or her own mind on important issues.
This way of dealing with our multi-everything nation has a generous and salutary humility to it. Yet it also contains its own absolutism: anyone who questions the belief that all truths are relative must be rejected as questioning the absolute truth of relativism. Christians often face just this accusation, because there are some things we hold as true, simply true.
Although most Americans seem content to rest secure in just such a position, it is hard to see how, rather than uniting us, it may just as well lead to intellectual chaos, where “ignorant armies clash by night,” and there are no common beliefs that can bring us together. The case can be made that it is just such kinds of beliefs that were helpless in the face of demonic tyrannies in the form of Hitler’s Nazism and Stalin’s communism.
This leads to another set of beliefs that are common in America, and throughout much of the Western, formerly Christian, world: secularism. The modern history of the Western world is fraught with horrible examples of religious persecutions and religious wars, many of them in the name of the Prince of Peace. It is enough to drive any decent person away from all religious belief, and to place one’s hope and faith in what the world and society have to offer.
“Secular” is from the Latin saeculum, which refers to the present age, usually to the exclusion of any religious beliefs and practices. Faith in science, social progress, and the innate goodness of the human race are the usual substitutes. In Europe, the grandest cathedrals, from another age, stand empty, while attempts at progress in other areas of life go on apace.
In the United States the First Amendment to the Constitution states that congress shall pass no law establishing any religion. Although the term “separation of church and state” is not in the Constitution, it has become the basic understanding of that amendment.
The idea that government has no business meddling in religious matters has allowed religions of all sorts to flourish here. It is one of the pillars of our democratic society.
In his book The Secular City, Harvey Cox rejoices that we are now free from religious dogmas being injected into the body politic. We can now “get the ghost out of the machine,” taking the world on its own terms, unconcerned with placating the gods and spirits thought to be in it.
Cox sees his position as thoroughly in keeping with the Old Testament prophets, who were continually opposing the religions of their day, and mocking the various gods who dominated people’s lives, while these deities were really mere nothings. Thus, they freed the people from the fears and burdens that these gods brought.7
American secularism has been a truly positive aspect of our society and our lives, and especially in its ability to allow religions of all sorts to prosper.
But on the other side of the coin, there is the question of whether secularism itself has not become its own religion, its own ultimate, which can be as demanding and oppressive as any other religion. Christian beliefs and practices are more and more excluded from the public square at the same time that governments—national, state, and local—are dominating a greater and greater share of our lives. It remains to be seen what effects for good or evil this will have on both church and state.
Looking Forward
The American experiment in social life, politics, and religion has been an undeniable success in many regards. It has allowed individuals to practice, or to ignore, whatever faith they desire. It has engendered a huge and confusing variety of religious life and thought. Freedom from politicians and priests has produced one of the most productive and exciting panoramas anywhere or at any other time.
On my shelf is a book titled Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion, by David Gelernter.8 It puts forth the idea that Judaism was true in its way but was surpassed by Catholicism. In turn, Catholicism was surpassed by Protestantism. Finally, Americanism comes, which surpasses them all. It is truly the great religion.
The question, of course, is not whether American beliefs and practices surpass previous incarnations of Christianity, but how the two are related. This brings us back to our original question of whether Christianity is the same thing as Americanism, or whether they are incompatible, or perhaps overlap in some ways.
In order to deal with this issue, we must look at various expressions of the faith, as seen, of course, in the Bible. But it is also important to look at some of the most seminal theologies throughout time and place, and relate them to Paul’s “faith, hope, and love.”
Faith is basic to all believers. Certainly, one of the great advocates of this is Martin Luther. It will be necessary to examine his experience of this faith.
Christians have always clung to some manner of hope in the face of doubt and despair. Irenaeus of Lyon, from the second century, will be our guide here.
Perhaps the greatest articulation of divine and human love in the history of the church is from Augustine of Hippo. We will look at his beliefs.
In looking at them we can unfold for ourselves some of the depths and riches of the Christian faith and examine ourselves and our culture in that light.
1. Augustine, Enchiridion.
2. Herberg, Protestant, Catholic, Jew.
3 Niebuhr, Christ and Culture. See also Carlson, Christ and Culture Revisited. Also: Penner, ed., Postmodern Turn; Baker and Smith, American Secularism.
4. John Newton, “Amazing Grace” (1772).
5. E.g., Osteen, Your Best Life Now.