Liberation Theology, the New Religious Political Rigbt, and Veblen’s Ambivalent View of Christianity
One of the more curious aspects of Thorstein Veblen's evolutionary social theory was his vision of two different forms of Christianity. As a modern leisure class institution, Christianity in Veblen's view was a social atavism, inherently irrational in nature. Its social effects were to exert a conservative influence over spiritual attitudes, retard economic efficiency, sustain a system of status and fealty, and add substantially to the conspicuous waste of economic resources. But in one essay, "Christian Morals and the Competitive System," Veblen proclaimed the existence of a natural Christianity rooted in hereditary impulses toward brotherhood and mutual service.' Surprisingly, in his closing comments, he intimated that this natural Christianity verged on manifesting into a revolutionary social force. Several scholars have commented on the contradictions created by the appearance of natural Christianity in Veblen's social theory.2 Veblen offered only this single discussion of it. Significantly, no subsequent reference to a revolutionary social force emanating from a Christian impulse appears in The Instinct of Workmanship. Yet, that fleeting vision of "good" natural Christianity against the backdrop of "bad" institutional Christianity offers a unique perspective from which to view the contemporary polar cases of radical Christian social-political activism-the lib-