A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

Liberalism and Neo-Orthodoxy
Since metaphysical language cannot be verified by the
scientific method, it is meaningless.
In the 1960s, some theologians drew from the ideas
of positivism and the implications of Bultmann, Tillich,
and others to formulate secular theology. They sought to
apply theology to the secular world and to answer the
questions of secular philosophy. Carried to its extreme,
this movement said that language about God is meaningless.
It is impossible to talk intelligently about God, and it
is even impossible to think of God as a personal being.
This movement became characterized by the phrase “God
is dead.” What was left was to apply theology to society—
a reduction of theology to philosophy.
In this line of thought, Joseph Fletcher became the
foremost exponent of situation ethics. Under this view,
there are no moral absolutes. What is true and right
depends upon the situation. What is moral in one situation
may not be moral in another. Fletcher went so far as
to say that, in certain cases, such things as prostitution or
fornication may not be wrong. To make a moral decision
on these matters, we have to look at the background of
people, the influences on them, their motivation, their
purpose, and the alternatives available to them.
Liberation theology arose in Latin America among
Roman Catholics who were influenced by Marxism. It
looks at salvation largely in terms of political and economic
liberation, sounding much like the social gospel in
a revolutionary setting. According to liberation theologians,
the church’s goal should be to create a just society,
and therefore it should be active in promoting political,
economic, and social changes. They typically define
social justice to include the redistribution of wealth and
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