Is There a Third Force in Christendom?

• Published in: Daedalus (Cambridge, Mass.) Vol. 96; no. 1; pp. 43 - 68
• Main Author: McLoughlin, William G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston American Academy of Arts and Sciences 01.01.1967
• Subjects: African Americans; Baptists; Catholicism; Christian missionaries; Christianity; Conservatism; Fringe; Gospel/Gospels; Liberalism; Pentecostal; Protestantism; Religion/Religions/Religious; Theology; United States/US
• ISSN: 0011-5266; 1548-6192

The impact of the rapidly expanding pentecostal, adventist, & holiness groups on US religion is examined. Although these groups are growing at a faster rate than either the Roman Catholic or the traditional Protestant denominations, they are seen as not constituting a dynamic new force capable of replacing or seriously threatening the old world order. Rather, they seem 'to be a comment upon the confused state of religion & world affairs in this generation.' The reaction against the optimism of Soc-Gospel idealism led in the period after WWII to a breakup of the earlier Liberal Protestant consensus. In this climate, both fringe sects & fundamentalists gained. it is stated 'that the recognition of Amer's that this is a pluralistic & not an exclusively Protestant nation has come with the realization that the Catholic Church has at last become Amer'ized.' It may even be that the most dynamic & healthy pietistic elements in the US culture religion are now coming from Roman Catholicism. The Protestant Churches seem to lack sufficient unity to act with their old confident vigor; they seem querulous & confused. The Jews are still too small a group, though their activity & influence far exceed their numerical strength. Catholicism, however, has the unity, the flexibility, & the will to seek new & dynamic solutions for the major issues of the day, both at home & abroad. Ultimately then, the 3rd force in Christendom may not be any form of Protestant conservatism or Negro or Catholic liberalism, but the pietistic spirit of the US culture itself-not only the Amer sense of mission & of charity or stewardship which leads to giving econ assistance in billions of $'s, but the sense of religious commitment & ideals that Amer's equate with democracy & their way of life. M. Maxfield.