Religion cannot accept any society without abandoning its true Kindom.
The End of Economic Man reached the conclusion that the churches could not, after all, furnish the basis for European society and European politics. They had to fail, though not for the reasons for which the contemporaries tended to ignore them. Religion could indeed offer an answer to the despair of the individual and to his existential agony. But, it could not offer an answer to the despair of the masses. I am afraid that this conclusion still holds today. Western Man—indeed today Man altogether—is not ready to renounce this world. Indeed he still looks for secular salvation, if he expects salvation at all. And churches, especially Christian churches, can (and should) preach a “social gospel.” But they cannot (and should not) substitute politics for Grace, and social science for Redemption. Religion, the critic of any society, cannot accept any society or even any social program, without abandoning its true Kingdom, that of a Soul alone with it God. Therein lies both the strength of the churches as the conscience of society and their incurable weakness as political and social forces of society.
ACTION POINT: Religion should serve as a critic of society and not as a political force. How does this principle compare with the role of religion in the U.S. at the present time?
The End of Economic Man
* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker