Theology for Everybody: RomansSample

The aftermath of World War I (1914–1918) left the German people economically and psychologically devastated. Three million Germans, including 15 percent of the men, died in the war. Blamed for the war, Germany was publicly shamed at the Treaty of Versailles and forced to pay approximately $260 billion in reparations in today’s equivalent. It took the German people 92 years to pay it off. The result was a culture of people who felt defeated, robbed, and oppressed. They felt that their power and wealth were taken from them. They were hurting, and they felt like victims. The philosophy that comes out of that time has a particular emotional appeal to others who are hurting. “The system is broken. I have been oppressed. My rights have been taken. My money has been stolen. My shame has been increased, and my dignity has been decreased.”

In 1923, Carl Grünberg founded the Institute for Social Research. It was the first funded Marxist think tank. Pursuing utopia without God, it was based on anti-capitalism and anti-democracy. The Institute was run by scholars who were Jewish by their birth and culture but were not walking in relationship with God. Known as the “Frankfurt School,” they created their concept of deconstruction and reconstruction through their ideology of critical theory. They asked what was wrong with gender, marriage, family, education, capitalism, democracy, etc. Once those pillars were deconstructed, how could they reconstruct a utopian society— “heaven on earth”—without God? These scholars were considered countercultural radicals.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. The Frankfurt School scholars were displaced by the Nazis, first to Geneva, then to Paris, and then to Columbia University in New York City. If you want to know what the culture will look like in the next generation, then go and see what the universities look like in this generation. The culture makers and gatekeepers are going to come from the universities. The Frankfurt School scholars envisioned the best way to bring change in the world would be to get into a major American university to create a curriculum that would spread to other universities and eventually change the future of culture.

This culture of critical theory at its maturation looks like an erosion of civil liberties and civil rights. There is an increase in “politically correct” rules and laws and a massive dependence on the government. Citizens experience severe poverty and debt, but they think they have figured it all out. Law enforcement powers decrease as drug use and sex trafficking numbers increase. Quality of life plummets. Here’s the point: the only way to get to heaven is with God. Any human attempt at heaven without God only creates another version of hell. (Continued on Day 55 ...)

Today’s Reflection

In what ways do you see critical theory influencing America today?