Featured JES Author: Ryan Donoghue's "To Talk Jesus Is to Talk Politics: The Protestant Church and Resistance in East Germany"

Issue 59.4 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available via Penn Press. For each issue, the Diablogue features one author and makes a full-text PDF version of their article available on Project Muse. In this issue, we feature Ryan Donoghue’s "To Talk Jesus Is to Talk Politics: The Protestant Church and Resistance in East Germany" which can be accessed HERE. 

Ryan Donoghue received his B.A. in Political Science in 2020 from Rutgers University, Camden, NJ, and is currently seeking his M.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies from Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, expecting to finish in December 2024. His research interests include resistance studies, subcultures, postcolonial political movements, Eastern Bloc studies, youth culture, social history and social movements, revolution, and political culture. He is a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha political science honor society and the Athenaeum Honor Society.

In two sentences, what is the main argument of your J.E.S. article?

The East German Protestant church’s persistence in the face of combined forces of modernization and state ideological domination afforded it a modicum of autonomy from state interference.

Taking advantage of this unique position, and inspired by pastors of the Bekennende Kirche (Confessing Church) who refused to align theology to Nazi ideology during the Third Reich, a handful of Protestant pastors engaging ecumenical outreach fostered an autonomous movement that helped to facilitate East Germany’s Peaceful Revolution of 1989.

In your article, you talk about how efforts to remove religion from German public life under the Weimar Republic was the first step in the long-running confrontation between socialist authorities and Protestant church leaders. In many cases, we think of promises of secularity in the public sphere as liberalizing, and not authoritarian. What made the situation in Weimar Germany different from another secular project, like the American separation of Church and State?

Historically, German socialists viewed the church as a middle-class institution that was aligned with the established order, a view rooted in the close relationship between the church and the monarchy going back to the nineteenth century; this carried over into the Weimar Republic.

In the aftermath of Germany’s defeat in World War 1, the subsequent German Revolution of 1918 and the abdication of Wilhelm paved the way for the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), a socialist party rooted in principles of class struggle, which ushered in a number of reforms in an attempt to chart a new course for the country, including codified separation of Church and State. The significant difference between Weimar and American secularizing projects is the ideology that underpinned their motivations and the ways they were carried out; American separation was rooted in free practice, while initial reforms in the early Weimar period were rooted in anticlericalism in reaction to the privileges that had been extended to clergy by the state.

You describe the precedence of “ideology” throughout both the Nazi regime and the Cold War as posing a threat to religious communities — yet also talk about the collaborationism of both Protestant and Catholic mainstreams with the Nazi rise to power. What, in your view, is the distinction between “ideology” and “religion” that leads to such a complicated push and pull?

The answer to this question is complicated. To borrow from Althusser, ideology is material in the sense that it is instrumental to reproduce the systems of production, it is how we make sense of ourselves as individuals in the world in which we live. Religion, at its essence, places faith in and devotion to a particular discourse of “truth” that is immaterial while we also try to make sense of that same world. The complicated push and pull lies in their mutual coexistence and how religion can be both instrumentalized to reproduce those conditions at the same time it can be bulwark against it.

Your article details how decentralized Protestant clergy who resisted the Marxist-Leninist East German government eventually partnered with the “anarchy” offered by youth rebellion and punk subcultures. Is there, in your view, a resonance here with the histories of intra-socialist conflict between anarchic and communist factions?

Yes, and I think it is an issue at the heart of many Eastern Bloc state projects and the ways they sought to re-organize social life; this can be traced back to the original schism of diverging views on the communist revolutionary process. The Democratic centralization prescribed by the Marxism-Leninism upon which states like the GDR were formed differed greatly from the bottom-up process envisioned by Rosa Luxemburg and others. The resultant paternalism exhibited in states like the GDR drove much of the resistance and in the end played a significant role in their unravelling. It’s important to remember that the East German autonomous peace movement was not anti-socialist, per se; it was reform oriented and guided by tenets of democratic socialism in reaction to the GDR’s brand of state socialism.

In what ways can intercultural relationships and dialogue foster bridge-building across cultural divides?

My interest in this topic stems from a life-long interest in subcultures and the unique spaces they provide for creativity, community, and resistance. Having experienced the lasting effects of the original East German punk subculture firsthand, I was introduced to its unique place in history after reading Tim Mohr’s book Burning Down the Haus, which mentions, in great detail, the unique relationship between the subculture and the church. From there I dug deeper in connection with my ongoing research for my Master’s Thesis.

What is your next project?

My next project is my Master’s Thesis which is currently in its rough draft phase and in review with my First Reader. It utilizes the concept of everyday resistance in a case study of the practices associated with the first wave (1977-1983) of the East German punk subculture. It also analyzes the political transformations associated with the second wave (1983-1989) and the facilitating role Protestant ministers played in that process and the subsequent Peaceful Revolution of 1989. It is a project I hope to expand on as a PhD student in the fall.

Featured JES Author: Raimundo César Barreto, Jr. on "José Míguez Bonino and the Third-World Challenge to the Ecumenical Movement"

Issue 59.3 of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies is now available! It features essays originally presented as papers for the North American Academy of Ecumenists annual meeting at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas, November 16-17, 2023.

For each issue, the Diablogue features one author and makes a full-text PDF version of their article available for 60 days on Project Muse. In this issue, we feature Raimundo Barreto’s "José Míguez Bonino and the Third-World Challenge to the Ecumenical Movement,” which can be accessed HERE.

Raimundo C. Barreto is an associate professor of World Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he has been teaching since 2014. He holds a bachelor’s degree in theology from Seminário Teológico Batista do Norte do Brasil, an MDiv degree from McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, and a PhD in religion and society from Princeton Theological Seminary. Before coming to Princeton, he taught at various institutions in Brazil and was the director of the Division on Freedom and Justice at the Baptist World Alliance.

Barreto is the author of Protesting Poverty: Protestants, Social Ethics, and the Poor in Brazil (Baylor University Press, 2023) and Base Ecumenism: A Latin American Contribution to Ecumenical Praxis and Theology (Augsburg Fortress, 2025). He is working on a new book titled Christians in the City of São Paulo: The Shaping of World Christianity in a Brazilian Megacity (Bloomsbury). He is also the co-editor of the Journal of World Christianity, the general editor of the World Christianity and Public Religion Series published by Fortress Press (2017–24), and a convener of the World Christianity Conference since 2018. In addition to his publications, which include numerous journal articles and book chapters, he has served on boards and committees of various organizations, including the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO), Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI), Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC), Baptist World Alliance (BWA), Aliança de Batistas do Brasil, American Baptist Churches (ABCUSA), the Alliance of Baptists, the National Council of Churches USA, and the World Council of Churches (WCC).

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In a few sentences, what is the main argument of your J.E.S. article?

This article explores the role of José Míguez Bonino in the ecumenical movement, focusing on his emphasis on a third-world perspective and the significance of addressing social justice in Christian unity. In this context, the term 'third world' refers to an emancipatory project that emerged in the 1950s, influenced by the struggles of the global South against colonialism and imperialism. This project, which influenced Bonino and other theologians from the global South, encouraged them to conceive a more inclusive and justice-oriented approach to unity. Bonino stressed the importance of basing the concept of unity in history and context, rejecting an idealized view in favor of a nuanced understanding that recognizes conflict, division, and differences. He highlighted the radical contextuality of human existence and the essential location of discourses, emphasizing the struggle for meaningful unity within a broadened understanding of oikoumene, grounded in justice and solidarity with the oppressed. This perspective makes the urgency and importance of a more inclusive and justice-oriented approach to unity a key focus for future ecumenical efforts.

How did you get interested in the topic?

This topic came to me as a result of my personal and academic journey. Raised in an anti-ecumenical evangelical church in Brazil, I was initially presented with resistance and misrepresentation towards the ecumenical movement. Paradoxically, this experience sparked a strong desire in me to understand and contribute to this movement.

As I delved into the history of Brazilian Protestantism, I discovered the significant role of ecumenical engagement in the struggles of the impoverished majority of the Brazilian people. This was particularly evident through a movement called Iglesia y Sociedad en America Latina (ISAL), which laid the foundations for what can be termed a Protestant branch of Latin American liberation theology. In studying this movement, featured in my book "Protesting Poverty: Protestants, Social Ethics and the Poor in Brazil" (Baylor University Press, 2023), I came to realize the significant role of José Míguez Bonino as an ecumenical figure since the early 1960s. He progressed from being a Methodist pastor advocating for local ecumenical relations in Mendoza, Argentina, to co-founding ISAL. Bonino was also the only Latin American Protestant to attend Vatican II and one of the first to interpret it in the region. His participation in the second meeting of the Catholic Episcopal Conference of Latin America in Medellin, which sparked liberation theology in the continent in 1968, was a pivotal moment in his journey. This event, along with his tenure as a regional president of the Faith and Order Commission and member of the W.C.C. Central Committee, solidified his presence and leadership in many ecumenical initiatives in Latin America and beyond.

Furthermore, as a liberation theologian in dialogue with partners from a broader ecumenical network, he contributed to reshaping prevalent perspectives in the pursuit of unity within the ecumenical movement. An invitation to discuss his role as a Latin American Protestant interpreter of Vatican II at a conference in Louvain last year finally provided me with an opportunity to highlight the theological influence of this still relatively unknown Latin American theologian on the ecumenical movement and its understanding of unity.

How do you think Bonino's understanding of "oikoumene" is helpful in thinking about ecumenical efforts?

Oikoumene is a word derived from the Greek, which generally means "the whole inhabited world," and which, since its absorption into Christian vocabulary, has been defined both religiously and politically. The question is, who defines oikoumene? And, who is part of the oikoumene, and who is left out? There was a time when this word referred to those who lived within the boundaries of the Roman Empire. Later, it became a reference to the Christian world while preserving the memories of the church's connections with the empire. Over the centuries, it has been used in different ways. Yet, oikoumene has often been defined by those in positions of power and privilege.

In the modern era, it was adopted by the ecumenical movement in reference to the Christian ideal of universal unity inspired by Jesus's prayer in John 17. What José Míguez Bonino and others have brought to the table is the need for ecumenical efforts to take seriously those who have been made invisible in those conversations and for Christians everywhere to do a self-examination to see how they have been complicit in the exclusion and erasure of others. Thus, the terms in which oikoumene is defined must be revisited, and the voices of the victims of oppression, the poor, and all those who remain excluded must be heard. His understanding of unity is broader than the classical call for church unity, and it challenges not only ecumenical conversations on Christian unity but also Christian self-understanding and priorities. I engage in a fuller conversation on this topic in my new book, Base Ecumenism: A Latin American Contribution to Ecumenical Praxis and Theology, (Series: Shapers of Ecumenical Theology) with Augsburg Fortress Press, which should be out in Spring 2025.