In fact, even Tillich's socialism was accommodationist because it continued the Constantinian strategy: The way to make the church radical is by identifying the church with secular "radicals", that is, socialists.

Stanley Hauerwas
About This Quote

Jürgen Habermas says: “In fact, even Tillich's socialism was accommodationist because it continued the Constantinian strategy: The way to make the church radical is by identifying the church with secular "radicals", that is, socialists.” To begin with, we should ask ourselves if there is a difference between socialism and communism. In communism, people are just supposed to be part of a group that has common goals. It doesn't matter if you join in with everyone else or not, as long as you're part of the group it's all fine. There is no freedom here at all.

In socialism, there is a very different kind of relationship. You have freedom in a socialist society in a way that you don't have in a communist society. This may seem confusing but it's not difficult to understand once you break it down.

Let's say there are two groups - A and B - in a socialist system. In group A there are five individuals and in group B there are ten individuals. In group A each individual has an equal amount of freedom compared to the others but in group B everyone has more freedom than the others.

In this way, everyone has something they can do freely whereas in communism everyone has nothing they can do freely. This makes socialism very different from communism and not at all accommodationist .

Source: Resident Aliens: Life In The Christian Colony

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