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HUMAN RIGHTS AS RADICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: PROTESTANT THEOLOGY AND ECUMENISM IN THE TRANSWAR ERA*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2016

TERENCE RENAUD
TERENCE RENAUD*
Affiliation:
Yale University
*
Yale University, Department of History, 320 York St, New Haven, CT 06511, USA[email protected]
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Abstract

From the 1920s through the 1940s, European and Anglo-American Protestants perceived a crisis of humanity. While trying to determine religion's role in a secular age, church leaders redefined the human being as a theological person in community with others and in partnership with God. This new anthropology contributed to a personalist conception of human rights that rivalled Catholic and secular conceptions. Alongside such innovations in post-liberal theology, ecumenical Protestants organized a series of meetings to unite the world churches. Their conference at Oxford in July 1937 led to the creation of the World Council of Churches. Thus, Protestants of the transwar era supplied the two main ingredients of any human rights regime: a universalist commitment to defending individual human beings regardless of race, nationality, or class and a global institutional framework for enacting that commitment. Through the story of Protestant thinkers and activists, this article recasts the history of human rights as part of a larger history of critical reappraisals of humanity. Understanding why human rights came into prominence at various twentieth-century moments may require abandoning ‘rights talk’ for human talk, or, a comparative history of radical anthropologies and their relationship to broader socio-economic, political, and cultural crises.

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Articles
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The Historical Journal , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 493 - 518
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

*

This article has evolved from a working paper first composed in 2010. Special thanks to Margaret L. Anderson, John Connelly, Gene Zubovich, Tehila Sasson, Udi Greenberg, Samuel Moyn, and the anonymous readers for their helpful commentary.

References

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18 Wolf Krötke, ‘The humanity of the human person in Karl Barth's anthropology’, trans. P. G. Ziegler, in Webster, ed., The Cambridge companion to Karl Barth, pp. 159–76 (at pp. 166, 168). Krötke quotes from Barth's Church dogmatics. On Barth's mature personalism, see McInroy, Mark J., ‘Karl Barth and personalist philosophy: a critical appropriation’, Scottish Journal of Theology, 64 (2011), pp. 45–63 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and McLean, Stuart D., Humanity in the thought of Karl Barth (Edinburgh, 1981)Google Scholar. See also Dorrien, Gary J., ‘The Barthian revolt: Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, and the legacy of liberal theology’, in Kantian reason and Hegelian spirit: the idealistic logic of modern theology (Malden, MA, 2012), pp. 454–529 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and McCormack, Bruce L., Karl Barth's critically realistic dialectical theology: its genesis and development, 1909–1936 (Oxford and New York, NY, 1995)Google Scholar.

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20 Oldham, J. H., ed., The churches survey their task: the report of the conference at Oxford, July 1937, on church, community, and state (London, 1937), p. 193Google Scholar.

21 See Bowne, Borden Parker, Personalism (Boston, MA, and New York, NY, 1908)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Knudson, Albert C., The philosophy of personalism: a study in the metaphysics of religion (New York, NY, 1927)Google Scholar; Brightman, Edgar S., Personality and religion (New York, NY, 1934)Google Scholar. In Brightman's work especially, personalism functioned as a ‘philosophy of religion’ rather than a theological system. See also Pihlström, Sami, ‘Pragmatism and American personalism: problems in perspectival metaphysics’, Iyyun: The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly, 53 (2004), pp. 287–324 Google Scholar.

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23 Brunner, Emil, ‘The Christian understanding of man’, in Jessop, T. E. et al., The Christian understanding of man (Chicago, IL, 1938), pp. 141–78Google Scholar (at p. 177).

24 For more recent histories of the Oxford conference, see Thompson, For God and globe, pp. 93ff; Edwards, The right of the Protestant Left, pp. 78–82; Smith, Graeme, Oxford 1937: the Universal Christian Council for Life and Work Conference (Frankfurt/Main and New York, NY, 2004)Google Scholar.

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26 Nils Ehrenström, ‘Movements for international friendship and life and work, 1925–1948’, in Rouse and Neill, eds., A history of the ecumenical movement, i, pp. 545–96 (at p. 553).

27 On the trans-Atlantic planning of these conferences, see Thompson, For God and globe, pp. 93–119; Smith, Oxford 1937, pp. 135–9; and Warren, Theologians of a new world order, pp. 59–77. An early report by Edwin E. Aubrey emphasized the continuity between the Stockholm and Oxford conferences. Aubrey, Edwin E., ‘The Oxford conference, 1937’, Journal of Religion, 17 (1937), pp. 379–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 ‘From Oxford to Germany: sympathy with the church: a new world council’, Times, 20 July 1937, p. 13.

29 L&W and F&O have survived as independent commissions of the World Council of Churches. The IMC held its own world conference at Tambaram (Madras, India) in 1938 and reached many of the same conclusions as L&W at Oxford. Perhaps because of the unique concerns of missionary work – and probably also reluctance to join an organization dominated by members from (former) colonial powers – the IMC did not officially merge with the World Council of Churches until the New Delhi Congress of 1961.

30 Clements, Keith, Faith on the frontier: a life of J. H. Oldham (Edinburgh, 1999), pp. 1, 471–5Google Scholar.

31 Kent, John used the term ‘religious professional’ in William Temple: church, state, and society in Britain, 1880–1950 (Cambridge, 1992).Google Scholar

32 See Robertson, Edwin H., Unshakeable friend: George Bell and the German churches (London, 1995)Google Scholar; and Rupp, E. Gordon, ‘I seek my brethren’: Bishop George Bell and the German churches (London, 1975)Google Scholar.

33 See Thompson, For God and globe, pp. 93–119; and Clements, Faith on the frontier, pp. 309–28.

34 Quoted by Charles W. Hurd, ‘Militant program urged for religion’, New York Times, 14 July 1937, p. 12.

35 Over 400 official delegates from 125 Protestant and Orthodox churches in 40 countries gathered together with 300 laypeople and 100 representatives from various Christian youth movements. Fenn, Eric, That they go forward: an impression of the Oxford conference on church, community, and state (London, 1938), p. 12Google Scholar; J. H. Oldham, Introduction to The churches survey their task, pp. 9–55 (at pp. 27–8).

36 Clements, Faith on the frontier, pp. 271–2. Aubrey noted that the ‘Scandinavian Barthians’ wanted to begin the conference with preliminary theological definitions, while the American and Eastern Orthodox delegates preferred pragmatic discussions of church unity. ‘The Oxford conference, 1937’, p. 386. The claim by Warren (Theologians of a new world order, pp. 78–80) and Edwards (The right of the Protestant Left, pp. 73–8) that American influence dominated the conference, however, does not accord with the evidence.

37 Emil Brunner to Karl Barth, 20 Oct. 1930 and 13 Dec. 1932, in Busch, ed., Karl Barth – Emil Brunner, pp. 199–205 and 210–12.

38 Brunner, Emil, Man in revolt: a Christian anthropology [Der Mensch im Widerspruch, 1937], trans. Wyon, Olive (Philadelphia, PA, 1947)Google Scholar. For a detailed analysis of Brunner's paper and the Oxford reactions to it, see Thomas S. Derr, ‘The political thought of the ecumenical movement, 1900–1939’ (Ph.D., Columbia, 1972), pp. 516–62.

39 Brunner, ‘The Christian understanding of man’, pp. 142, 153, 168.

40 Oldham, J. H., Church, community and state: a world issue (London, 1935), pp. 36–7Google Scholar. See Smith, Oxford 1937, pp. 126–7. In his introduction to the main Oxford report, Oldham noted the participants’ widespread engagement with personalism. The churches survey their task, p. 46.

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43 Niebuhr, Reinhold, ‘The Christian church in a secular age’ [1937], reprinted in Christianity and power politics (New York, NY, 1940), pp. 203–26Google Scholar. The parable appears in Luke 15:11–32.

44 Hurd, ‘Militant program urged for religion’.

45 ‘A way of life’, Times, 14 July 1937.

46 See Fox, Reinhold Niebuhr, pp. 176–8.

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48 Ibid., p. 68. See also Niebuhr, Reinhold, The nature and destiny of man: a Christian interpretation, i (New York, NY, 1941), p. 220Google Scholar, and ii (New York, NY, 1943), pp. 64–7, 159, 278–9.

49 On Niebuhr's generally negative opinion of Barth, see Fox, Reinhold Niebuhr, p. 117. The feeling was mutual. After the war, for example, Barth described Niebuhr as a ‘hopeless discussion partner’ and asked never again to be paired with him at ecumenical conferences. Karl Barth (Basel) to Willem A. Visser ’t Hooft, 11 June 1951, in Herwig, Thomas, ed., Karl Barth – Willem Adolf Visser ’t Hooft. Briefwechsel, 1930–1968 (Zurich, 2006), pp. 243–5Google Scholar.

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51 ‘New Nazi blow at churches’, Times, 2 July 1937, p. 16; ‘Die erste Kanzelabkündigung zur Verhaftung Martin Niemöllers’, in Niemöller, Wilhelm, ed., Briefe aus der Gefangenschaft Moabit (Frankfurt/Main, 1975), p. 326Google Scholar; Bentley, James, Martin Niemöller, 1892–1984 (New York, NY, 1984), p. 209Google Scholar.

52 George Cicestr, letter to the editor, ‘Arrest of Dr. Niemöller’, Times, 3 July 1937, p. 15; ‘Action of the conference in regard to the absence of the German evangelical church delegation’, in Oldham, ed., The churches survey their task, pp. 275–6. The German invitees represented a wide spectrum of views within the German evangelical church, both pro- and anti-Nazi. They were denied exit visas by the German government. Eugen Gerstenmaier gathered their input into a pamphlet and mailed it to Oxford. It appeared in English as Church, Volk and state (London, 1938). Two representatives from the German free churches did attend the conference: the Baptist leader Paul Schmidt and the Methodist bishop F. H. Otto Melle, both of whom openly supported the Nazis. Observers knew very well that these individuals functioned as Nazi propaganda tools. See ‘Reich takes issue’, New York Times, 14 July 1937, p. 12.

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55 See for example Latourette, Kenneth Scott, Missions tomorrow (New York, NY, 1936)Google Scholar, and the study by Hutchison, William R., Errand to the world: American Protestant thought and foreign missions (Chicago, IL, 1987)Google Scholar. In his pioneer dissertation, Graeme Smith argued that Oxford was primarily a ‘missionary conference’ with conversion as its ulterior goal. However, he underestimated both the change in missionary consciousness and the novelty of the Oxford doctrine of man. Smith, Oxford 1937, p. 13 and passim.

56 ‘A message from the Oxford conference to the Christian churches’, in Oldham, ed., The churches survey their task, pp. 57–63 (at p. 58).

57 Fenn, That they go forward, p. 30. On Christian totalitarian ideas in the United States, see Edwards, The right of the Protestant Left. In contrast, prominent Christian thinkers including Waldemar Gurian also helped develop the theory and politics of anti-totalitarianism in the 1930s and 1940s. See Chappel, James, ‘The Catholic origins of totalitarianism theory in interwar Europe’, Modern Intellectual History, 8 (2011), pp. 561–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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59 Oldham, Introduction to The churches survey their task, pp. 9–55 (at p. 50).

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61 Clements, Faith on the frontier, p. 471.

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63 Niebuhr, Reinhold, Reflections on the end of an era (New York, NY, 1934), pp. 90–3Google Scholar. Drawing on European personalism, Niebuhr would develop his own theological anthropology in The nature and destiny of man (1941–3) and The self and the dramas of history (New York, NY, 1955)Google ScholarPubMed.

64 See the subsequent books on Christian anthropology by Oxford conference attendees: Calhoun, Robert L., What is man? (New York, NY, 1939)Google ScholarPubMed; Aubrey, Edwin E., Man's search for himself (Nashville, TN, 1940)Google Scholar; and Niebuhr, The nature and destiny of man. See also Smith, Oxford 1937, pp. 158–71, and John Kimball Saville, ‘The relevance of the Oxford conference doctrine of man to industrial reconstruction’ (B.Div., Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, CA, 1942).

65 ‘Report on the universal church and the world of nations’, in Oldham, ed., The churches survey their task, pp. 167–87 (at pp. 173–4). George Bell later echoed this sentiment in the article ‘The church and the future of Europe’, Fortnightly Review, Mar. 1943, reprinted in The church and humanity (1939–1946) (London, 1946), pp. 110–22Google Scholar. The argument about the moral deficiency of international law had been developed by Huber, Max in his essay ‘Some observations upon the Christian understanding of international law’, in The universal church and the world of nations (Chicago, IL, and New York, NY, 1938), pp. 97–143 Google Scholar.

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68 Brunner, Emil, ‘Das Menschenbild und die Menschenrechte’ [Part 1], Universitas. Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Literatur, 2 (Mar. 1947), pp. 269–74Google Scholar (at pp. 269–70). Part 2 of the essay appears in no. 4 (Apr. 1947), pp. 385–91.

69 Emil Brunner (Zurich) to Karl Barth, 13 Oct. 1948, in Busch, ed., Karl Barth – Emil Brunner, pp. 366–7. See also Brunner, Emil, ‘The new Barth: observations on Karl Barth's Doctrine of Man’, trans. Campbell, John C., Scottish Journal of Theology, 4 (1951), pp. 123–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar. According to a letter from Barth to Visser ’t Hooft of 11 June 1951, however, Barth still thought Brunner's interpretation was ‘entirely outrageous’. Herwig, ed., Karl Barth – Willem Adolf Visser ’t Hooft, pp. 243–5.

70 See the five-volume conference report edited by ’t Hooft, Visser, Man's disorder and God's design (London, 1948)Google Scholar, and Visser ’t Hooft's own reminiscences about the conference in his Memoirs, pp. 204–14.

71 Nurser, For all peoples and all nations. See also Nolde, O. Frederick, Free and equal: human rights in ecumenical perspective (Geneva, 1968)Google Scholar.

72 Bell, The kingship of Christ, pp. 85, 124–8. See also Visser ’t Hooft, Memoirs, p. 219.

73 Visser, Willem A. ’t Hooft, ‘Report of the general secretary’, Ecumenical Review, 2 (1949), pp. 57–70 Google Scholar (at p. 68). The WCC published a brief discussion of this issue by Malik, Charles, ‘Human rights and religious liberty’, Ecumenical Review, 1 (1949), pp. 404–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

74 Devanesen, Chandran, ‘Post-Amsterdam thoughts from a younger church’, Ecumenical Review, 1 (1949), pp. 142–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In 1954, George Bell nevertheless claimed that ‘[a]mong all the questions confronting the world at the present time the race question is pre-eminent’. Bell, The kingship of Christ, pp. 136–9; Visser ’t Hooft, Memoirs, pp. 277–95.

75 ‘The church and international law’, Ecumenical Review, 3 (1950), pp. 64–76 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (at p. 73).

76 Edwards, The right of the Protestant Left, pp. 123ff. Oldham had introduced the concept in his pre-war writings.

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79 Moyn, The last utopia.

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