The Theology of Freedom

One was a Prime Minister and one was a pastor. But both were preachers, and each was in the U.S. with an Epistle to the Americans. The sum of their gospel: with patience and courage, backed by power, the U.S. and the free world will yet see their principles triumph and emerge victorious from the cold war.

Before his end-of-week conferences with President Kennedy in Washington, Britain's Harold Macmillan stopped off in Manhattan to speak to the American Newspaper Publishers Association. In the past, Macmillan has shown an eagerness to negotiate with Russia's Khrushchev not always shared by America. Said he now to the publishers: "Our duty is surely simple--to be firm but patient, never to yield and never to give ground, but never to take provocative action ourselves; and to wait maybe one, maybe two generations, maybe more, until in God's good time the ordinary peoples of that vast area [Russia], encouraged by higher standards of material life, begin to look again for that spiritual food, without which man has never lived for prolonged periods since he came into the world." Appearing at the University of Chicago, Swiss Dogmatist Karl Barth, whose Epistle to the Romans 44 years ago started him on the theological career that has taken him to the top rank of Protestantism (TIME cover, April 20), had a new message for the U.S. Everyone was aware that Barth has long faulted the West for being as materialistic as the Communists and--worse--cloaking secular ambitions in religion. Said he now to the American theologians: "If I were myself an American citizen and a Christian and a theologian, I would look at that liberty statue in New York harbor. She needs a little or a good bit of demythologizing--nevertheless, she may also be seen and interpreted and understood well as a symbol of the true theology, one not of liberty but of freedom. It is a real human freedom, one which God gives us in his grace to obey him." An American theology of freedom, Barth said, should include "freedom from any inferiority complex over or against good old Europe, freedom from a superiority complex over or against Asia and Africa." It should also include freedom "from fear of Communism, Russia, inevitable nuclear warfare and, generally speaking, of all principalities and powers." Said Barth, summing up: "This theology of freedom should be a freedom for humanity." Ancient advice? Perhaps. But it was freshly drawn from intellectual sources.

There is a correlation between patience and courage. There is another between talk and action.

Through the already long years of the cold war, the world has seemed condemned to talk--for its own good. And it will have to keep on talking for a long while. Last week the U.S. Secretary of State met with the Russian ambassador in amiable conversations that, as the leaks had it, might conceivably lead to an agreement of some kind. The following day the Secretary took off on yet another trip around the world for more talk, from Athens to Australia.

But after weeks of talk and weeks of lull, there was, at last, also a week of action--most of it on the part of the U.S.

At Cape Canaveral, the rockets soared, and not just nice little technical marvels, but big giant boosters that hissed and roared and one of which hit the moon (see SCIENCE). At Christmas Island, in the hot Pacific, the U.S. resumed atomic tests in the atmosphere, firing shots heard round the world. They were heard not for the size of their bang but for the certainty of their intent. For the U.S. knew what it had to do, why it had to do it, and did it. If the immediate reaction was any indicator, most of the world understood the reasons behind the U.S. position.

The theology of freedom, as espoused by the Prime Minister and the pastor, and as already practiced by the U.S.

during the cold war, seemed to have an effect. The resumption of tests, coming in the face of Khrushchev threats, seemed to convince the Soviet Union that the U.S. will not be bullied.

With myriad trouble to worry about at, home, Khrushchev seemed almost willing to think about being reasonable abroad.

As summer beckoned, the relaxation of tensions for once did not seem to be merely the calm before another storm. It almost seemed like calm.

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