Abstract
H. Richard Niebuhr has influenced theologians significantly for over seven decades through Christ and Culture and the typlogy he outlines therein. Martin E. Marty, who first coined the term ‘public theology’ claims that this book should reappear in print every 50 years, due to its important contribution. In this thesis, I ask that if this is true, is Christ and Culture also an important tool for the Church in out working public theology. Does the typology Niebuhr outlines offer a framework which is also helpful to public theology? If not, why is this book not an appropriate tool in this work? I consider the typology Niebuhr offers in Christ and Culture, the essence of public theology, three significant contextual shifts which have occured, and modern expressions of Niebuhr’s types, in order to assess whether Christ and Culture contributes significantly to public theology today.