Critical Theory, Culture Wars and the Christian
Critical Theory is the ruling dogma of our age, though you may not know it. It is the driving force in the social and moral changes that we have lived through over the past 50 years and of their consolidation in the laws that govern our land; and so it was meant to be. In 1917, with the Communist revolution in Russia it was confidently expected by radical thinkers that workers across the western world would rise up against their capitalist masters to usher in the new utopian and egalitarian age of their vision. By the 1930s and in the midst of the greatest global economic depression of the modern world it was clear that the workers of the developed nations were not going to do so. Something had gone wrong, something was missing, Marxist-Leninist theory wasn’t working out as planned; something else had to be done for the dream to be realised. Enter Herbert Marcuse and the Marxist social philosophers of Frankfurt University, Germany. Marcuse and his fellow academics understood that the capitalist system was held together by social structures and power systems and that what was required to achieve the desired revolution was for these structures to be overthrown by what Marcuse termed ‘a Long March through the institutions.’ Idealising human freedom and equality they developed a critique of society aimed at changing society and liberating ‘human beings from the circumstances that enslave them.’ (Max Horkheimer). By doing so they brought themselves into confrontation with western society, with the Judaeo-Christian principles on which it was built and the institutions and principles that flowed from it – things as fundamental as the family, social hierarchy and relationships, science, rational thought and even the nature of self. Forced to flee Germany by the rise of the Nazis, Marcuse and his colleagues settled at Stanford University in the USA and there their work began to bear fruit.
The seed of the word, like the leaven in the bread, takes time to grow and mature – whether the seed be good or bad - but grow it did, flourishing in the margins of the field, where those outside the system dwelt. Latching onto the grievances of marginalised groups Critical Theory and practice became the philosophical fuel to their causes. One by one, across the western world, laws that had been built on a Christian worldview were challenged and replaced; the Witchcraft Act in 1951, the Abortion Act 1967, the Sexual Offences Act 1967, Divorce Reform Act 1969 were all landmarks in the dismantling of Judaeo-Christian society. The 1960s were an early high watermark and harvest time for the new philosophy with the Civil Rights movement for the equal treatment of black Americans, the anti-Vietnam war protests and the sexual revolution proving fertile for the new thinking - and the students chanted ‘Marx, Mao, Marcuse’ as they demonstrated from behind the barricades. Laws built upon Biblical principles for the creation of a healthy society were replaced by laws and mores that emphasised the rights and liberties of the individual over that of the community. From then the new thinking has penetrated society to its deepest and highest levels, whether it is the protester on the street, the Cabinet minister in government or the Bishop in his palace, there are few that still resist the imperative of the supreme right of the self-defined individual. The revolution proceeds apace and at ever increasing speed, to the current point that sex and gender have been divorced and the felt need of an individual that he or she has been mysteriously placed before birth into a body of the other sex (‘gender’), overcomes the science that sex is genetically determined before birth and develops as the person passes through childhood and puberty into adulthood. The heroes of yesterday (Germaine Greer, Peter Tatchell or J.K. Rowling, for example) become the villains of the day, as the theory speeds on faster than its followers can run and new players take up the baton. The end result of where this will all lead no one can know but the situation in which society finds itself is well expressed in the opening lines of W. B Yeats’ poem The Second Coming:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
The barbarians are inside the gates.
How does Critical Theory work? It works by breaking down society into its constituent groups and identifying their position in a hierarchy of power, categorising them as oppressed or oppressor. This is termed identity politics and from it we have a breakdown of society which everyone today will find familiar. From Marx’ classic distinction of the working class (proletariat) and middle-class (bourgeoisie) have burgeoned many other categories: male/female, white/ BAME, heterosexual/LGBT, able-bodied/disabled and so on… the breakdown and categorisation of society into ever smaller segments is inexhaustible. From these categories of identity is formed the hierarchy of power with different groups allotted different positions on its rigid scale. People also fall into multiple categories, for example straight, white, able-bodied male or something else and from this develops intersectionality, where individuals may be perceived to be oppressed not because of one aspect of their social position but because of the particular combination of categories that they inhabit. A black woman for example may feel she is dis-advantaged not because she is black or a woman but specifically because she is a black woman. For Critical Theorists the end game vision of the new liberated and egalitarian humanity is achieved by overthrowing the power structures in place, to empower the oppressed and dis-empower those seen to be powerful. It is the recipe for on-going social, intellectual and moral revolution in the mode of Mao’s Cultural Revolution.
How does this affect the Church and what, if anything can we do about it? The first thing to be acknowledged is that many of the Critical Theorists complaints about societal oppression are justified, it is wrong that black people are discriminated against because of the colour of their skin or that women are paid less for work than men. Society changed but laws were slow to follow and where the Church failed to be the prophetic voice for the marginalised and oppressed the Marxist inspired stepped in. It is the role of the Church to speak to power on behalf of the weak and when it has done this it has been at its best. That is one aspect of the failure of the Church, to speak and act when it should have done, the second aspect is that it has lost faith in its own vision and message which is greater, more profound and more powerful than that of the Critical Theorists.
The first step towards recovery is to recognise Critical Theory, and its outworking in what is commonly called the Social Justice movement for what it is, a literally godless, sub-christian heresy. Developed in mid-nineteenth century Europe it imbibed from birth certain christian ideals, values and world-views, secularised them by stripping God from the equation and melded them with other popular thinking of the time. The Marxist theorists replaced human sin with oppressive systems as the source of evil (for example, in feminist thinking it is ‘the Patriarchy’), heaven with the future utopian state, spiritual re-birth with the new communist man and the Christian struggle against the world, the flesh and the devil with class struggle or the struggle of the oppressed group against the oppressor. This last concept of progress through struggle was pervasive, inspiring not only Marx, who published Das Kapital in 1867 but also Darwin, whose On the Origin of Species was published in 1859. From Darwin’s work and the concept of the survival of the fittest flowed the poisonous practice of eugenics (planned breeding and abortion) and Nazi theories of racial supremacy. The failure of the Church to maintain faith in its own message and apply it prophetically led many of its own senior leaders and ordinary members in the pew to abandon the historical faith for this secular version, as they recognised that the new movement sought to address many of the social issues which they knew had to be addressed but which they felt powerless to confront. Critical Theory is a deceptive false teaching.
Is it too late to do anything about the transformation in our society, has the Christian west been lost or is there still time to force back the barbarians and close the gates? Certainly we must try, as St. Paul wrote ‘we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.’ Having recognised Critical Theory and the Social Justice movement for what it is the Church must regain confidence in her own message, the gospel of the Kingdom and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There are important areas where Critical Theory fails when compared to the gospel. First, it is a godless theory, cut off from the source of life it has no power to create or sustain. It offers no transcendence but is materialistic and mundane. Secondly, its critique of power, which is its central thesis, is inadequate. Where Christ offers spiritual re-birth and then subverts the whole structure of power by declaring and demonstrating that the ‘greatest among you will be your servant,’ Critical Theory offers only revolution and the replacement of one fallen, human power structure by another. Thirdly, Critical Theory works by division, slicing society up into smaller and smaller units and placing them in opposition to one another, creating enmity, jealousy and strife. In contrast the gospel of Christ offers love, reconciliation and unity as every believer takes an equal place as a recipient of the grace of God. And fourthly, where Critical Theory offers freedom to the individual as the captain of their destiny and the master of their soul, the gospel offers a far more profound freedom, freedom from sin and all its baleful consequences, freedom in community with every other believer and freedom in reconciliation with a loving father ‘whose service is perfect freedom.’
Though the day may seem far gone the battle is not lost, society can yet be saved and re-built upon Kingdom principles. The gospel message is the greater, let us again take hold of it by faith, by prayer empower it with the strength and authority of heaven and deliver it to our friends, family and neighbours with the love that is poured out in our hearts by our Father in heaven. Beware the leaven of Marx.
To purchase the book (UK) Building Jerusalem
To purchase the book (USA) Building Jerusalem
