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is such a time-effective communication makes peo
ple aware of conflicts that poor communication ob
scures. Yet it is possible that accurate understanding
of a conflict may lead to sane efforts at a solution.
Muddled communications and misunderstanding in
vi te disaster.
Conceivably the churches might make a contribu
tion to the body politic on this issue. They, like all
our communities and institutions, are plagued by
problems in communication and threats of polariza
tion. But they do include, within a voluntary society
sharing some symbols and loyalties, disparate groups
of people who are victimized by the failures of com
munication within our society. Many a local church
CHRISTIANITYandCRISIS
A Chris/ian Journal of Opinion
537 WEST 121 ST. • NEW YORK N.Y. 10027
REINHOLD NIEBUHR, Founding Editor
WAYNE H. COWAN, EditorROBERT A. HARSH, Associate Editor
E D IT O RIA L BO A RD
JOHN C. BENNETT, Chairman
M. SEARLE BATES ARTHUR J. MOORE
ROBERT McAFEE BROWN ROGER L. SHINN
KENNETH W. THOMPSON HOWARD MOODY
RICHARD T. BAKER WALDO BEACH
JOHN D. MAGUfRE JAMES KUHNSTEPHEN C. ROSE MICHAEL NOVAK
TO M F. DRIVER C. ERIC LINCOLN
HARVEY G. Cox
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
WILLIAM F. MA Y J. B. DUROSELLE
CHARLES C. WEST GEORGE D. YOUNGER
GIBSON ''\lINTER ALBERT VAN DEN HEUYEL
VINCENT HARDING M. M. THOMAS
RICHARD SHAULL
CONTENTS
AN INTERVIEW WITH MARCIO MOREIRA ALVES
WAYNE H. COWAN
CHRISTIANITY AND CRISIS, Vol. XXX, No. 13, JUly 20, 1970
Published biweekly for 24 consecutive issues, beginning the thirdMonday in September, by Christianity and Crisis, Inc., 537 West121st St., New York, N. Y. 10027. Subscription price: Canadaand U.S., $7.00; add $1.00 fo r foreign postage; students, $5.00.Second class postage paid at New York, N. Y. and at additionalmailing offices. Please send PO D form 3579 to Christianity andCrisis, 537 W. 121st St., New York, N. Y. 10027. Copyright ©1970 Christianity and Crisis, Inc. ~ ,
might do something for its own h
health of the society if it went to
manding task of becoming a commu
municates.ROGE
BETHGE/S MONUMENT
EBERHARD BETHGE'S monu
phy, BonhoefJ-el', is now av
UnitedStates
as
a $17.95 hardcoverand Row), and one can only hope tha
out in an edition more available t
the general public. Reviewing the b
iel Berrigan has suggested that he
from Bonhoeffer only in rejecting
dagger decisions that led the Germ
mortal conflict with Hitler. Berrigan
from his (our) own State, would
himself with those who espouse pe
frontational and dangerous, resistanc
This, of course, is a central issue ra
of Bonhoeffer. To what extent is the
fied in resorting to violence to brea
of violence? Even lhis phrasing of
too simple. Nevertheless, any final
Bonhoeffer must see him no l merel
of provocative theological notes but
man who, opposed to his nation and
nation's church, chose a violent COlIT
One might compare Bonhoeffer wi
resisted during World War II , Jacqu
recent book, Violence, would seem to
dict on any and all attempts to jus
Christian. Thus one must put a qu
gan and Ellul: Has something hap
those war years .and now to modify
which Christians can assent to viole
we be better served by a careful, prud
porary suggestion of those areas in
might be justified, even called for?
One deals with this issue both be
carnate in Bonhoeffer's life and bec
certain analogous relevance to issue
extreme religious left in America.
hoeffer boom in this country in the
early 1960'S slighted the issue of viol
of Belhge's book indicates that this
area overlooked by Bonhoeffer's Am
izers. Nothing is more apparent in
than Bonhoeffer's lacerating experie
tutional church in his native lan
Geneva-based ecumenical movemen
come the World Council of Churches
154 Ch
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__ _ ~ ~ . _ ~ _ ~ " " " " ' _
__ _ _ ._
... ,_._ . . . . . ._ . . . . ....._. __
n the Introduction, Bethge notes that his ac-
is inerely the starting point in what must be
and detailed study of Bonhoeffer.
one thrust of further study must be to
the tantalizing suggestions concerning
in rela
within the ecumenical movement
the international scene to whom the Confessingwas either a nuisance or anathema. For ex
it emerges that the World Alliance for
International Friendship through the
Exploration into US-Brazil Relations
An Interview v/ith Marcia Moreira Alves
our March I6 issue wearticle
L. vVipfiers "The Price of Progress inappear in this country documenting tor
in Brazil. Now, as a part of our continuing exof various aspects of United States inin Latin America, we are pleased to
you an interview with Marcio A10reira Alves.who now lives in exile in Chile, is a well
journalist and ex·member of the Brazilianin which he repTesented the State of(which is the city ot Rio de Janeiro).
of his opposition to the abuses ot power byruling military regime, the army demanded that
of Congressional immunity so that heWhen the Con
refused, President (Geneml) Costa e SilvaI3 , I968, and ordered
of Mr. Alves, who escaped to Chile, and
We invited Mr. Alves, a leadspokesman of the "Catholic Left," to our offices
he was in the US recently on a speaking tour,Editor Wayne H. Cowan in the interoiew is
E. Crahan, who teaches Latin Amer
Lehman College, City University of
York,
Compared with other Latin American na
that were colonies of Spain, Brazil has gen
as less doctrinaire and rigid, and
and pragmatic. How do you explain
in the last decade?
I don't think there is a striking difference
and the rest of Spanish America.happened in Brazil is horizontal
1970
WAYNE H. COWAN
violence similar to the violence in the rest of the
Latin American countries only not on such a na
tional level. What I mean by horizontal violence is
a dispute, a violent dispute of power, between fac
tions of the same class.
What has never occurred in Brazil until now is
vertical violence from the bottom up. Oppression
by small groups of a large percentage of the popUla
tion has been routine: the land owners and the in
dustrial powers have always resorted to violence
when their privileges were threatened. But now rev
olutionary violence is building up because the previ
ous possibility of accommodation under civil rule
no longer exists.
The negotiations between classes that character
ized the decade before 1964 an d that kept Brazil in
sort of a social balance was interrupted by the mili
tary coup. And this generates violence, repression
and armed struggle that is uncharacteristic of Brazil.
Now with the increased structuring of Brazilian so-ciety, with the growing prole tarian consciousness of
the urban working classes, with the revolutionary
mood of the students and of a fairly sizable part of
the church, the elements for revolution are there.
For the the first time in Brazilian history the mili
tary has intervened to stay. The accompanying op
pression has caused revolutionary pressure to build.
The military is very messianic and cut off from
much of civilian society. They think that they have
the formula for saving Brazil and that they are the
only sector of Brazilian society free enough of classbonds to enforce the development model that would
155
_ ~ . . . _ __ . . : I
Churches (predecessor to the WCC) throughout the
1930'S took a quite compromising position vis a vis
the German Christians, sacrificing the Christian to
the expediencies of "unity."
Bethge's book is bound to commence a new
round of Bonhoeffer evaluation in the US. Let us
hope that the issues of violence and the perfor
mance of the institutional church, then an d now,
will not be ignored during this perilous hour in
America, Perhaps there is still time to learn from
recent history. STEPHEN C. ROSE
\1
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