Since Reinhold Niebuhr conceived his theological interpretation of history some three decades ago, a great deal has changed in the climate of both the sociopolitical and the theological worlds. The defense of democratic culture against fascism as the dominant historical concern of theologians has been replaced by the critique of Western capitalistic and imperialistic culture by those many groups oppressed by it. Communism has ceased to represent a monolithic, totalitarian structure-both in its Stalinist structural embodiment and in its