Review of To Change the World 
by Rosemary Radford Ruether
Jackson Snyder, March 9, 1994

Snyder Bible Home
Essays

contemporary Christian community: political commitment against

poverty and oppression, anti-Judaism, intolerance for other faith-

traditions, justice for women, and enviromental exploitation and

abuse. The Christian's "portrait" of Jesus reflects one's stance

on such issues. The neutral see Jesus as neutral; the apolitical

as apolitical. Therefore, the relevancy of Christianity in dealing

with the forementioned problems boils down to its christology,

since one's image of Christ is the center and pivot-point of faith.

Since the scripture is the main traditional testimony to

Christ, the community of faith must be prepared to deal critically

with it in order to ferret out the closest resemblance possible to

the Jesus of history. The grave difficulty of such an on-going

project lies in that the Judaic culture of the first-century is

completely alien to today's, and thus falls short of affirming

contemporary Christian values including triumphalism, religious

bigotry, and sexism. Is the Christ, portrayed in scripture, the

solution or the problem? "We must confront the fact that scripture

and theology have contributed to these very evils that trouble us.

They have functioned as sanctions of evil. Yet we discover within

the prophetic tradition and the gospels essential resources to

unmask these very failures of religion" (page 5). The thesis of

the entire work is that the teachings and actions of Jesus, as

critically exposed from scripture, disclose a "messianic humanity"

that provides the hope of remedy within both Christian and

universal contexts.

I. Since the liberation of Palestine and the formation of

Israel, Jewish and Christian scholars have been revisioning Jesus

within the context of the first-century political struggle.

According to Brandon, Josephus tacitly identifies Jesus as one

of the "messianic prophets," which were more dangerous than the

party of the zealots because such undergirded rebellion through

prophetic ideology, preaching the immanent advent of the theocratic

Kingdom of God. The call was to become a part of the movement to

usher in the Kingdom. Due to unrealized eschatological

expectations, the "diaspora church" after 70 C. E. spiritualized

Jesus' mission, sanitizing it by deleting its revolutionary

political content.

Contrary to this position, Hengel concluded that Jesus was a

pacifist who was not expecting an outward Kingdom, but an inward,

that promised personal freedom despite oppressive rule. Cullman

incorporated elements from both Brandon and Hengel - although

several disciples had political affinities (Simon and Judas, in

particular), Jesus' teaching caused them to break their association

and affiliation with subversion. Cullman's image of Jesus is that

of an "eschatological radical" whose kingdom was not to be found

within this time and space. In fact, Jesus recognized the

authority of the state and paid taxes, all the while not affording

Caesar legitimacy. Of the messianic expectations of ancient

Judaism, the messianic king verses the son of man, Jesus identified

himself exclusively with the latter, thus requiring in his hearers

a personal conversion to the reality of the unseen world, in which

he was the leader and emissary.

Reuther condemns such "Greek dualism," integrating perceived

separate realities into one - the "messianic ideal - both religious

and political, transcendant and this-worldly, inward and outward,

both reconciled with God...not two different things, but two sides

of the same thing." She cites the apocalyptic writings - therein

(she posits) the two messianic identities are confused and quasi-

integrated - but the messiah remains a fervently political figure,

right through even the Apocalypse. She concludes that there were

not two messianic traditions or hopes, but that the political and

apocalyptic are two sides of the same hope.

In making this bold assumption, Ruether opts not for the

traditional, apocalyptic interpretation of "son of man" (as defined

by 1 Enoch, 4 Esdras, and others), but for the son of man as merely

a title meaning, as the NRSV unfortunatly translates, "mortal." In

doing so, her interpretation of the "son of man" flies in the face

of the first-century millieu that she is trying to recapture, as

well as modern, critical scholarship. (For an excellent run-down

of actually three messianic traditions in first century Judaism,

see Moltmann The Way of Jesus Christ.)

Reuther concludes that Jesus' vision was not eschatological at

all, but entirely political and social, as expressed in certain of

the "authenic" parables. The Kingdom is a vision of "peace and

justice" in this world - one which is the hope of all who pray the

great prayer "Thy Kingdom come." The evil that the oppressed

prayed to be delivered from was not the Romans or the rulers of the

Jews; rather, the root cause of all oppression - "love of prestige,

power, and wealth that causes people to 'lord it over'" one

another. Jesus' judgment was not leveled at Rome, but at the elite

of Israel - those with temporal and religious power - those who use

such privilege to oppress, or opress to maintain such privileged

status. This attitude is revealed in Jesus' saying, "The first

shall be last and the last first." The least would respond to his

message, because the oppressed and poor would have no stake in the

politics of oppression.

Although the Romans killed Jesus, and the "Jews" were morally

responsible, only his close disciples could betray him, since they

were the only ones who truly understood his message. Jesus' arrest

and betrayal came about because of his disciples' greed for Jesus'

power so as to misuse it against their personal enemies. The

present-day church must recognize that its members are the

successors to the betraying disciples - using the powerful name of

Jesus to gain power over people. But Jesus "flees from those who

use his memory as a means of power and dominion."

II. Liberation theology of Latin America begins not with the

Cosmic Christ, but with the historic Jesus and his "liberating

praxis," which is Jesus' "preferential option for the poor."

Liberation theology restores the Kingdom of God and its action of

overcoming evil to primacy. It is, in fact, within the context of

liberating praxis that the church must be understood and

christology must begin.

The world is presently in the bondage of the "Prince of

Darkness." The evidence of a move of light upon darkness is that

affliction and oppression is overcome. From this point of view,

spiritual needs are not neglected, since spiritual bondage is

manifested in physical suffering and social inferiority, and

liberating praxis automatically dispells spiritual suffering with

the alleviation of the physical. To take this one step further, we

might conclude that the overthrowing of oppressive social and

economic structures, by whatever means are available, is evidence

of the coming of the Kingdom, and an "inbreaking of grace."

As grace breaks in, the polical/social culture begins moving

away from the Kingdom of Darkness, closer to the Kingdom of God.

The task of the followers of Christ becomes "to move human society

a little farther from the Kingdom of Satan" and toward the Kingdom

of God. Salvation language of the modern church serves to bind it

closer to Satan because it presumes that people can be saved

outside the context of the human situation. Followers of Christ

must abandon such ethereal language and put themselves in Jesus'

place, making themselves servants to all. In order to be such

servants, followers of Christ must realize that they are also

followers of the betraying disciples, and desist from setting up

new power structures, hierarchies, and dominions. "Satan now wears

the robes of the Vicar of Christ and uses the cross of Jesus as his

sceptre."

Liberation theology has itself risen from the poor and

oppressed who have experienced colonization first-hand. Yet

liberation will not come through repudiation of colonial culture

(language, customes, etc.), but through transformation of the

present culture. In order to be transformative, the church must

hear Christ's words about repentence, and become the "martyr

church" on behalf of the oppressed. Indeed, this has happened

with the church in Latin America, as we witness bishops, nuns, and

religious people forfeiting their lives with the oppressed. The

church exists to die with the oppressed.

Liberation theology does not recognize the doctrine of atoning

death, but that Jesus modeled martyrdom as a means of bringing

attention to the Kingdom, rallying support for its dynamics, and

proving the power of death can be broken. The church people must,

by violence if necessary (since violence is all around), be agents

in suffering and overthrow, yet yield not to the temptation to,

when having overcome, re-establish another Kingdom of Satan with

new kings.

III. Anti-Judaism is the "left hand" of affirming that the

Jesus of history was the messiah. The Jews of course reject the

idea, and are thus polemicized, especially in the doctrine that the

church was the fulfilment of Judaism.

The pre-Christian Jewish understanding of messiah was that he

would come in power to overthrow all evil, then establish a just

theocracy on earth. After the Christian teaching of an immanent

parousia, and its subsequent delay, messianic expectations became

internalized, and the messiah became a personal messiah, whose

coming could only be experienced within. Jews were under a curse,

thus no longer had the authority from God to interpret their own

scriptures, and were cut off from divine election. Mutual polemic

prohibited a meeting of the minds concerning the messiah.

Reuther explores three theological patterns in Christianity

which promote anti-Judaism. (1) Exegetical / covenantal: The

Hebrew scriptures are interpreted in light of Christian dogma, the

New Testament as the fulfillment of the Old, the New Covenant as

the replacement of the Mosaic (and others). To remedy this

understanding, Christians must re-interpret the biblical passages

that denigrate Jews; specifically, read "clerics" for "scribes" and

"theologians" for "pharisees." Christians must also reaffirm

Judaism's validity for today, and develop a positive appreciation

for it.

(2) Particularism and universalism: This doctrine states that

Judaism was for a particular people for a particular time, but now

Christianity is for all people universally. This leads to

supercessionism and imperialism. The remedy is the promotion of

pluralism; the incorporation of all religions into the Kingdom of

God. (3) The Christian understanding that the law was a "fleshly

foreshadowing," thus pitting the letter, flesh, and carnality

against spirit, truth, and grace; progressive against obsolete.

The remedy is to re-educate Christians into understanding Judaism

and Christianity as "parallel paths" to righteousness, both, after

all, having a common origin and textual tradition.

(4) Finally, the "christology of fulfilled messianism," that

sees Jesus as the fulfillment of all messianic expectations, is

prohibitive to integration. Jesus must be seen as not having

fulfilled messianic expectations, but as dying in hope of them.

Therefore, the name of Jesus might be a universal power instead of

just a particular power.

IV. Formative Christian theologies (particularly Aquinas)

have maintained the inferiority of women and the masculinity of

God. The theological "assumptions" that God is male, father,

logos, Jesus effectively eliminates the imaging of God as mother,

daughter, goddess. Because of the exclusiveness of God imagery,

"thousands of women have left the church, seeking a female divinity

and messianic symbol."

Reuther describes three modes of theology pertaining to Christ

and sexuality. (1) The "imperial Christ," developed mainly by

Eusebius (325), explains Christ hierarchically. Christ is God's

"demiourge," God's intermediary in the heavenlies. The Vicar of

Christ becomes Christ's intermediary. Patriarchy, hierarchy, and

slavery are blessed by the church as being the natural order.

Reuther offers the Hebrew Wisdom, a feminine figure, as a model for

God, and a superior model to the Greek logos.

(2) The "androgenous Christ," or the integration of sexes

within the messiah, is found from gnosticism through to pietism

(pietism being the only expression traditionally tolerated by the

Church). Christ becomes androgene (especially in the Gospel of

Thomas and Gospel of the Egyptians), and banishes sex altogether,

placing male and female in roles of equality. The ambivalence in

the present "womens' movement" is primarily due to the fact that

there has been no decision made as to whether the feminine side of

God should be the accepted image, or that this should be rejected

in favor of a yet "unempowered" goddess.

(3) The "prophetic iconoclastic Christ" of liberation theology

reverses the social order, and banishes hierarchy ("the first shall

be last..."). The servanthood of the prophetic Christ can only be

modeled by Christ's followers after they have become freed from

servanthood, thus freed to be servants. Leadership for servants

does not promote dominion, but empowerment and liberation. Women,

as "the oppressed of the oppressed," are the most open to such a

gospel. The prostitute, as holding the bottom place on the list of

Satan's Kingdom, will hold the top place in the Kingdom of God.

Just as Jesus calls for the renunciation of sex and class

distinctions, women hear the call not because they are female, but

because they are on the bottom of the list of oppressed.

V. The ecological crisis is tied into social domination.

Industrialization must oppress in order to fulfil its mission. A

small ruling class exploits natural resources through infringing on

scarce resources and the freedom of the oppressed, passing along

ecological disaster primarily where the powerless live. The

environmental debacle is insoluable as long as social domination

goes unchecked.

Traditional theology calls for subduing nature (Gen 1:28).

This text is interpreted not for "man" (as in "humankind"), but for

"ruling class white males." The model of God as patriarch, Israel

as wife and daughter promotes the perception that woman and

children nothing more than "chattels" - possessions to be exploited

and reduced to "compliant obedience." Reuther cites three

responses to industrialization:

(1) The "liberal - progressive" response promotes power

through progress. It is somewhat a trickle-down approach to power.

The more able the white, male ruling class is to subvert creation,

the more power he accumulates, the more power will naturally extend

downward, even to inferior races such as Arabs, Celtic Catholics,

and women. (2) Marxism is much like (1), but recognizes a basic

truth - that "expanding power over nature has been based on social

domination." Eventually, the oppressed will revolt and create a

new, just society.

(3) "Romanticism" is the movement "back to nature."

Industrialism and the move to cities has alienated humanity from

its roots in nature. The oppressed and "primitive" who still live

close to nature are seen as being repositories for a certain

"nature - wisdom" which the ruling class must tap in order to get

back to their own roots. Thus "salvation lies in a recovery of

this nature - wisdom and a utopian reconstruction of pre-industrial

folk society." Reuther "nails" this attitude down as promoting

native society and culture as one to be dominated and exploited by

"weary white male" vacationers!

Reuther promotes an "ecological - libertarian world view,"

calling for conversion to understanding the mutual need that all

peoples, animals, plants have for one another, in order to maintain

the balance of the world and promote ecological justice. Reality

is thought of as "the connecting links in a dance in which each

part is equally vital to the whole," rather than the conventional

idea of a linear or hierarchical model. If not heeded, surely

"flies and roaches will inherit the earth."

As followers of Christ in a world out of balance, we must

rediscover the cosmic covenantal theology of creation, which is

anti-dualistic and rooted in Hebrew philosophy. We must also

abandon hope of a final, "end-point salvation," which I take to

mean the coming of a Cosmic Christ. We as humans need to

rehumanize life, revitalize participatory government, share the

profits of exploitation, and balance leisure and work.

We must rediscover the Hebrew Jubilee of Leviticus 25:8-12,

and become converted to jubilee values, and turned back toward "the

center," a vision of Jesus and the Kingdom in which one is provided

daily bread, in which there is remission of debts, in which there

is release of captives. The redemption of Jesus thus becomes the

constant hope for Shalom as the "operative principle" in our lives.

Critique: There is much merit in critically evaluating the

intertestamental literature in order to understand messianic

expectations precursory to Jesus. There were in fact several

strains of intertestamental messianism that did sometimes become

confused and integrated in (especially) the New Testament.

Nevertheless, there is clear indication that, in Jesus time, these

messianic identities were not meshed into one. In fact, the Qumran

rules explicitly name the expectation of the coming of two messiahs

- the king and the priest.

Nevertheless, Reuther does well in integrating the messianic

identities as a paradigm for the integration of the physical and

spiritual in the daily lives of people. However, in doing so, she

then completely obliterates any personal spiritual significance or

power for good, opting only for a physical remedy for spiritual

ills. Hers is a theology of the here and now - of abandoning hope

- of self-sacrifice for a cause but not necessarily for change. By

carelessly redefining the eschatological title of the

intertestamental literature ("son of Man" as "mortal"), she

effectively makes Christ merely a past sign of a present improbable

possibility.

Having spent a considerable amount of time among the oppressed

of Haiti, I can testify that a hope for a final, cataclysmic

redemption of creation and judgment of evil is an ever-present,

positive attitude among oppressed Christians that promotesa great

measure of joy. Reuther, like so many other scholars, points to

liberation theology as the hope for both redemption and equality

among sexes. Yet the liberating movement in Latin America

presently is not liberation theology at all, but neo-

pentecostalism, which is apolitical, spiritually-minded, and good-

deeds-oriented.

Latin American neo-pentecostals are not scholars, nor perhaps

even literate. It is the liberation theologians that inhabit the

universities and write books. In my opinion, this is why, in the

minds of students and scholars, liberation theology is "happening"

down south, when really something altogether different is really

happening.

Similarly, in popular Christianity in this country, there is a

significant movement to support Judaism, both as a spiritual

movement and a political one. Christians are funneling millions of

dollars into Israel, teaching the validity of Mosaic law and Hebrew

covenants, and assuring Christians that they are but "grafted in."

Once again we find a book in which "the church" is defined as the

Catholic Church, or in terms of mainline protestant denominations

with their actionless pronouncements.

Synans tells us conservatively that there are 500 million

charismatics in the world - these are people who claim to have

heard the voice of God and are moving in the Kingdom, yet scholars

completely ignore this "move of God" in favor of their own

particular "scholarly" opinions, hoping to find their own place in

the theological millieu to dominate and oppress. Why? There is a

unifying force moving in this world now that disregards culture,

race, and religion? Yet the blind still try to lead the blind.

The book deals with "how to change the world." This is a very

ambitious title, and there are many excellent suggestions that I

intend to practice, even though I am a "white male of the ruling

class." However, the impression that I get after studying

Reuther's suggestions closely, is that if I adopt her theology,

then I will have done my part to change the world. Isn't this

somewhat oppressing to those of us who have had experiences of the

living Christ, and understand that our Kingdom isn't of this world,

yet do our best to be identified with Christ's suffering as well as

his resurrection?

In the final analysis, Reuther's christology has not developed

(in these pages, at least) from any tradition that I can get hold

of - so what about me? I get the feeling that in 1981 it was time

for Reuther to write a little position paper, or that she was

writing in order to lay the groundwork for later work. Her points

are dogmatic and unsubstantiated, except by her own authority.

This is why the book, though it is interesting, convicting, and

convincing, fails for me. Perhaps because I have read other, more

current theological writings on the subject, - this one seems quite

transparent and subjective. I am looking forward to reading

Reuther's Gaia and God in the upcoming weeks. Perhaps there will

be more flesh on these bare bones there.

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