Five Views on the Church and Politics (Counterpoints)

by Brian J. Benestad; Robert Benne; Bruce L. Fields; Thomas W. Heilke

and

1 more

Publisher:

Zondervan

, 2015

Overview

Few topics can grab headlines and stir passions quite like politics, especially when the church is involved. Considering the attention that many Christian parachurch groups, churches, and individual believers give to politics—and of the varying and sometimes divergent political ideals and aims among them—Five Views on the Church and Politics provides a helpful breakdown of the possible Christian approaches. Readers will find themselves equipped to think more deeply about the relationship between church and state in a way that goes beyond mere policy debates and current campaigns. General Editor Amy Black brings together five top-notch political theologians in the book, each representing one of the five key political traditions within Christianity. Each author addresses his tradition’s theological distinctives, the role of government, the place of individual Christian participation in government and politics, and how churches should (or should not) address political questions. Responses by each contributor to opposing views will highlight key areas of difference and disagreement. Thorough and even-handed, Five Views on the Church and Politics will enable readers to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the most significant Christian views on political engagement and to draw their own, informed conclusions.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Roman Catholics and Protestant reformers alike wrestled with the tension: Does government exist to construct and protect a realm of human flourishing, or does it exist essentially to restrain evil? And, following from that tension, what is the role and place of the church?” (Page 28)

“Government should promote justice and the common good, and Christians should have tempered expectations of what government can and cannot do.” (Page 15)

“This insistence on a strong doctrine of grace puts all human efforts in proper perspective. They deal with penultimate improvements in the human condition, with relative goods and bads, not with salvation. This means that politics is desacralized and relativized. Salvation is through Christ, not through human political schemes, nor through psychological or religious efforts, for that matter.” (Page 67)

“All of life is to be lived coram Deo, they would say—that is, before the face of God. All vocations can be holy, for all of our cultural labors can be expressions of tending God’s world. There is no ‘secular’ because there is not a square inch of creation that is not the Lord’s.” (Page 141)

“Christians—echoing the ‘two cities’ political theology of Augustine—belong not to the kingdom(s) of this world, but to the kingdom of heaven.” (Page 31)

Product Details

• Title: Five Views on the Church and Politics
• Authors: Brian J. Benestad, Robert Benne, Bruce L. Fields, Thomas W. Heilke, James K. A. Smith
• Series: Zondervan Counterpoints Series
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Print Publication Date: 2015
• Logos Release Date: 2017
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Christianity and politics; Theology, doctrinal
• ISBNs: 9780310524625, 9780310517924, 9780310517931, 0310524628, 0310517923, 0310517931
• Resource ID: LLS:CNTRPNTSFVPLTCS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T22:53:32Z