5
Niebuhr's Typology Of Christ And Culture
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 4
Type 5
Christ Against
Culture
Christ of
Culture
Christ
Above Culture
Christ and
Culture in
Paradox
Christ
Transforming
Culture
Radicals
Cultural
Christians
Synthesists
Dualists
Conversionists
Revelation
I John
The idea of the
Kingdom of God
"Render to
Caesar the things
that are Caesar's,
and to God the
things that are
God's"
Pauline Epistles
The Fourth
Gospel
Tertullian
Tolstoy
Mennonites
Gnosticism
Abelard
I. Kant
A. Ritschl
Justin Martyr
Clement of
Alexandria
Thomas Aquinas
Marcion
Martin Luther
Soren Kierkegaard
Roger Williams
Augustine
F. D. Maurice
It is very important to note that the only one of these five types, which does not
presuppose a Christendom context, is the Christ against culture type. Niebuhr's book can be
interpreted as an attempt to argue against this type. Although Niebuhr did not entirely reject
Christ against culture type, the only legitimate way he could accept it being embraced would be
as a special calling for a minority of Christians. He strenuously denied that it is the path of
discipleship that Jesus calls all of his followers to walk. The Christ against culture position, it
should be noted, describes much of the Fundamentalist movement prior to 1945. By accepting
Niebuhr's argument that this approach was inadequate, Evangelicals found themselves having to
choose one or another of the Christendom types as their own approach to engaging culture.