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Spiritual Bankruptcy: a prophetic call to action

Reviewed by Philip Joy.

John B Cobb Jr is a process theologian who preaches Christ as the wisdom of God, who comes to us in the plural forms of many faiths. He is also a strong advocate of social action. As its subtitle suggests, this book is designed to move Christians to save the earth. Global catastrophe looms. The population of the planet will soon outstrip what the planet can support. Short-term economic goals are insanely preferred to long-term ecological ones. Humanity and the common good have been lost. Religion is too divided to unite behind a single green, ethical, socio-political agenda. Belief in the supernatural suppresses concern for the natural. Religion is incapable of critiquing the establishment because it so often supports the establishment (e.g. the American religious Right). Secularism is little better. In our postmodern world personal choice has replaced normative discourse, removing any concept of what ‘ought’ to be done. The scientific method with its progression of theories has an inbuilt requirement to jettison the wisdom of the past. Neither sacred nor secular can solve the world’s problems.

Cobb suggests a new way: what he calls “secularizing.” This is not to be confused with the familiar concept of the ‘secular’, but is a transformation which religions and philosophies of the past have undergone, which has produced good for the human race. This is what Plato did with the ancient Greek religions, turning them into a philosophical tradition which went on to influence Western Society for over 2000 years. This is what the Hebrew prophets did, secularizing Mosaic religious rites in favour of ethical monotheism with all its social responsibilities. Jesus (unlike Paul, apparently) was a prophet in this mould, secularizing Jewish political messianism by instituting new spiritual communities in which anti-imperial values could thrive. This was what Luther did in locating authority outside of the papacy. This is what the European Enlightenment did, changing superstition into reason. It is what the Pietist movement, and later Liberal Theology, did in emphasizing humanism above traditional doctrine. This is the task Christians must engage in. As in the past, so now: we are to allow our Way and all the great Ways to undergo a secularizing process for our day, in order to produce a new purpose which can save the planet.

What, does he suggest, would this new secularized faith look like, and to what would it give rise? Well, it was at this point in the book (chapter four onward) that I started to lose the clarity and direction of the arguments. Cobb spends several chapters describing the rise of secularism, its effects on universities, science and economics, etc. and the rise of fundamentalism in reaction. He draws interestingly on Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy, but, except for an unexceptional passage about secularizing education, the Social Gospel movement and a listing of some of the greatest names who have engaged with world issues such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter and Toyohilo Kagawa, I found myself getting bogged down in descriptions with precious few prescriptions. I found the positive presentation of liberation theologies – political, race, gender and sexuality – things that Christians should certainly espouse as part of our call for justice, but it seemed to me that for us the book added up to little more than an encouragement to continue the trend towards social, political and green engagement that we rightly see as a responsibility of Christians anyway. Perhaps this book is directed at American churches which have not woken up to these issues; it may also address our own people. If so, let us encourage a wake-up call to action for the needs of the whole earth, but don’t bother buying this book: it throws the baby out with the bathwater. To share God’s heart for the fate of the planet, its people and its creatures does not require us to ‘secularize’ away our missionary zeal or our central tenets of faith.