The position is easy to grasp. If Christianity cannot – does not – reassert itself as a worldly power and re-establish some semblance of social/cultural dominance, then Christianity is effectively over, and nothing of Christianity will remain save for a few wild-eyed desert fathers, incurable holy fools, and scattered pockets of quietism.
Whenever I contemplate this “Christianity must assert itself in the world again, or else” position, I am reminded of a passage from Berdyaev’s Freedom and Spirit concerning the Crucified and worldly power (bold added):
The natural man, obsessed by the forces of the external world, sees nothing in the Crucified but a man suffering torture and humiliation, and the consequent defeat and annihilation of truth so far as this world is concerned.
Divine truth seems to be powerless. Is it possible that God can appear here below not as power forcibly transfiguring and overcoming life, but as crucified and to all appearance impotent when confronted with the forces of this world?
It was here that the Jewish people were led astray by refusing to recognize in the figure of the Crucified the expected Messiah and Son of God. The true Messiah, according to them, must appear in power and glory, and by founding a powerful Kingdom of Israel end the existence of suffering and evil.
The Cross of Calvary was a stumbling block for the Jews and remains so to this day for most of the Aryan race as well, for they expect the manifestation of truth in power and the victory of truth in the visible world.
This temptation means nothing more nor less than a denial of all freedom of spirit, an inability and even a refusal to see, beyond material humiliation and defeat, the invisible spiritual triumph of divine truth.
The coming of the Son of God and the Messiah in His power and glory as the King of the world and conqueror would have been the end of the freedom of the human spirit and the realization of the Kingdom of God by means of necessity and compulsion.