EDITORIAL

...We can do nothing but rejoice at such affirmations, and we are convinced that many of us who are Catholic could only benefit from meditating on them...

...Nonetheless, it remains true that many seem to have understood the Hartford Appeal in that way, and this fact underscores the value of the Boston Affirmations...

...Nonetheless, the Boston statement is important for its rejection of the widespread notion that God can be relegated to a "transcendent realm divorced from life" and for its strong identification with the weak and the powerless...

...the Boston statement is a most welcome prescription for the future direction of the church...

...The Boston 21-six Episcopalians, four Presbyterians, three Roman Catholics, three members of the United Church of Christ, two Baptists, two Lutherans and one Methodist-attack what they see as a new quietism that would have Christians turn blind eyes on efforts to fight injustice in the world...

...he and other signers clearly envisioned no back-turning on the problems of the world...

...It is certainly extremely difficult to achieve such perfect balance in a short statement, such as both the Hartford and the Boston documents...

...in fact, it may be that quite different statements, with sharply different emphases, are needed for different groups...

...Yet that, we fear, is the kind of spirituality embraced by all too many of us, and many people seem to have seen the Hartford Appeal as a justification for such narrow spirituality...

...it is the temptation to the new interiorism and an individualistic piety that almost totally ignores the social dimension...

...The danger in this, he said, is that it is tantamount to "excommunicating the majority of American Christians...

...Nevertheless, we could not help but be disturbed by some of the reaction to the Appeal-a reaction, it should be emphasized, that was not the fault nor the intention of its signers...

...It reemphasized transcendence and urged Christians to reject "false and debilitating" secular ideas that bad insinuated themselves into the church...

...The underlying debate in this matter, put in its simplest form, is between those largely committed to personal piety and those engaged in social action, and achieving the proper balance between the two courses is not easy...

...Perhaps it is regrettable that the Boston Affirmations are being viewed so explicitly as an answer to the Hartford Appeal/Father Avery Dulles has already said that the Hartford statement, which he helped draft, in fact contained many of the themes now sounded in the Boston Affirmations...

...Indeed, the overwhelming fault in the Catholic community is quite the opposite...

...No doubt there is something to be said for such criticism...

...Social action should not, of course, be considered a substitute for personal prayer and piety, but in a world in turmoil a spirituality that is primarily interior and lacking a commitment to justice is totally inadequate...

...In the year since its appearance the Hartford Appeal has been saluted by some for its theological insights and condemned by others for what they saw as its attack on Christian social action...

...The Hartford statement was a necessary corrective for those religious activists who had lost their theological roots...

...And Dr...

...it proclaims that spiritual renewal can be found in suffering on behalf of the poor and the downtrodden...

...For our part, we would reject neither statement, Hartford or Boston, but would regard both as contributions to the on-going dialogue within the church on a crucial issue...

...Fighting what they see as a turn toward conservative theology among Christians and emphasizing the importance of understanding and supporting God's work in contemporary situations, the Boston 21 deplore retreat from the struggle for social justice and urge all Christians to seek social reform on behalf of the poor and the oppressed...

...Too many Catholics still imagine that it is possible to be a good Christian without a commitment to social justice...

...Papal encyclicals, peace messages, bishops' statements on racism or social justice come and go, but the effect on the average Catholic in the pew seems minimal...

...There is truth in each document, and what is needed now is to combine the wisdom of both...

...As the statement says: "The living God is active in current struggles to bring a Reign of Justice, Righteousness, Love and Peace...

...Initiated by Lutheran pastor Richard J. Neuhaus, no stranger to our readers, and by religious sociologist Peter Berger, the statement was formulated and signed by a distinguished ecumenical group, including on the Roman Catholic side Fathers Avery Dulles, S.J., and Gerard S. Sloyan...

...Now a Boston group of 21 activists has issued its own statement, called "the Boston Affirmations" -timed very appropriately for Epiphany-clearly challenging the Hartford Appeal without mentioning it by name...

...our observations may not be applicable to members of other churches...

...In our editorial theo we said: ". . .one of the more interesting, remarkable and historically sig-nificant religious statements since the effulgence of popular theology that accompanied the crest of Vatican II...

...We welcomed the Hartford statement because of an obvious loss of a sense of the transcendent in the modern world, even among some Christians...

...The new Boston statement is certainly not immune to criticism...

...All believers are called to preach the good news to the poor, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord...

...Richard Neuhaus and Peter Berger have already objected to what they feel to be the statement's liberal political perspective, a perspective which they fear might imply an attempt to exclude Christians who would not accept the document's formulas for social change...

...Said Pastor Neuhaus to Religious News Service: "The engagement of the church has to be much more diverse than simply putting the Jesus brand on one's own program for social change...

...We see struggles in every area of human life but in too many parts of the church and theology we find retreat from these struggles...

...Further, careful reading of the Hartford Appeal showed that its framers strove to reject both that exaggerated emphasis on God's transcendence that allows some to "withdraw into religious privatism or individualism" and also the utopianism that encourages others to expect that imperfect human beings can create a perfect society...

...But as far as Catholics are concerned, the number tempted to absolutize social action at the expense of belief in the transcendent seems to us very limited, to say the least, and these are more persons of the 1960s than of the 1970s...

...As they say in their 1500-word statement, ". . . we are concerned about what we discern to be present trends in our churches, in religious thought, and in our society...

...Focusing on the narrow but fundamental question of God's relationship to his creation, it is an attempt to 'draw the line' on a few key issues of belief at a time when too much religious discussion seems to be slipping into either irrational and anti-intellectual fundamentalism or an uncritical embrace of a secular humanism...

...At the tune the Hartford Appeal was issued, we hailed its broad theological vision...

...Berger commented: "The Boston group wants to nail us down to a particular agenda which, broadly speaking, is a left-liberal agenda...

...The Boston statement affirms that "those who authentically represent God" must announce God's presence "in the midst of political and economic life...

...In short, our reaction to the Hartford statement at the time was basically favorable, and we would not now substantially modify that view...

...The Judeo-Christian traditions are pertinent to the dilemmas of our world...

...Here we can speak with most authority about the Catholic community which we know best...