{"id":38116,"date":"2024-09-05T06:59:28","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T13:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38116"},"modified":"2024-09-05T06:59:28","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T13:59:28","slug":"a-call-for-public-theology-on-not-becoming-the-religious-department-of-the-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-call-for-public-theology-on-not-becoming-the-religious-department-of-the-empire\/","title":{"rendered":"A Call for Public Theology: on not becoming the Religious Department of the Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"

In their work, Jesus and the Powers<\/em>, N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird offer us a call for public theology, how to belong to the kingdom of God that is not from<\/em> this world, but is done within<\/em> and for<\/em> the sake of the world [1]. While not seeking to gather signatures for a particular political ideology or position on abortion, gun control, Brexit, climate change, racial justice, they invite us to consider the important call of followers of Jesus to speak to power and carries out what they articulate as a \u201cvocation for faithful action\u201d that brings God\u2019s kingship over every facet of human life [2].<\/p>\n

The reason I see this as a call for public theology is rooted in the flow of the content, as well as the primarily Western audience to whom the authors are speaking.<\/p>\n

By addressing the Biblical backdrop of the Roman Empire and the Caesar cult, and considering examples throughout church history, it gave me pause in terms of any misconception about unique or special challenges the church faces in the West in our time as an \u2018institutionalized people\u2019 experiencing a sense of lost power and privilege, and needing to find its way again. In this sense, the negotiation of church and empire is expressed hauntingly by Wright and Bird, that \u201cThe early church had to negotiate empire, resist empire, flee from the empire, suffer under the empire, offer apologies for itself to the empire\u2026 until the church became one with the Empire\u201d [3]. At its best, Jesus\u2019 Kingdom values of forgiveness and freedom, love for enemies, and protection and care for the vulnerable and the poor stand clearly in opposition to the Empires throughout time [4]. At its worst, the church can begin to operate in a defensive posture that no longer resists evil, but even ends up complicit with evil in seeking political solutions that support faith positions through unethical or violent means. Power is and has always been enticing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another way to put this is that the church in the West is susceptible to being co-opted for purposes that run contrary to the ways of Jesus\u2019 Kingdom. In a phone call with Johannes Reimer, he shared a lament for Evangelicals. \u201cWhat is wrong with our Evangelical political orientation which seems to lead many of us to follow leaders with obvious anti-Evangelical tendencies\u201d [5]? Questions like this invite us to wrestle with a tension between submission to governing authorities (Romans 13:1-5 and 1 Peter 2:13-17) and either passive or active resistance [6]. Wright and Bird do not resolve this tension for us, but simply present it with a spectrum of responses to tyranny and injustice from violent and revolutionary to non-violent, which they call for as the norm we ought to aspire to [7].<\/span><\/p>\n

So we are left with a challenge to live out and reveal God\u2019s covenant relationship by participating in James K. A. Smith\u2019s idea of building a society in which justice and the right ordering of society are championed [8]. We are called to live, in Vincent Bacote\u2019s words, \u201cChristian faithfulness in the public realm\u201d, which, though achieved in an array of different ways in different Christian traditions, restores a conviction that being a follower of Jesus means \u201cliving a public faith, for the common good, which compels us to do good, to make good, and to build good in private and public endeavours\u201d [9].<\/p>\n

I dream of such a renewed passion for public theology, spoken of unashamedly and practiced diligently. Will we be known not simply as those who hate infanticide, but as those known for our compassion for the unwed mother with insufficient social support to raise a child, and as those who adopt the unwanted or unattended children? Will we be the people of God who stand against the injustices of abandoned international relationships, not just those who wish to push away unwanted asylum seekers created by tyrannical forces who filled the power gaps? Will we be known as the people of God carrying on the manifesto of Jesus in Luke 4?<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord\u2019s favour.\u2019\u201d (\u202d\u202dLuke\u202c \u202d4\u202c:\u202d18\u202c-\u202d19\u202c \u202dNIVUK\u202c\u202c)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Will people know that Jesus is Lord by looking at our private and public lives? That is my prayer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

__________<\/p>\n

[1] Wright, N. T., and Michael F. Bird., <\/span>Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies,<\/span><\/em> London: SPCK Publishing, 2024, 7.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Jesus and the Powers<\/em>, xiii and 8.<\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0Jesus and the Powers,\u00a0<\/em>25.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]\u00a0Jesus and the Powers,\u00a0<\/em>28. Here, Wright and Bird explicitly document that \u201csuch values were certainly not self evident to the Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Vikings, Ottomans, Mongols or Aztecs\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5] Johannes Reimer is the founder of the Peace and Reconciliation Network of the WEA, with whom I work. More of his thoughts can be found in his book on the topic: Reimer, Johannes, Missio Politica: The Mission of Church and Politics,<\/em> United Kingdom: Langham Creative Projects, 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

[6]\u00a0Jesus and the Powers<\/em>, Chapter 5.<\/p>\n

[7] Jesus and the Powers<\/em>, 121.<\/p>\n

[8] Jesus and the Powers<\/em>, 144.<\/p>\n

[9] Jesus and the Powers<\/em>, 150.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In their work, Jesus and the Powers, N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird offer us a call for public theology, how to belong to the kingdom of God that is not from this world, but is done within and for the sake of the world [1]. While not seeking to gather signatures for a particular […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3249],"class_list":["post-38116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-wright-dlgp03","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38116"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38152,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38116\/revisions\/38152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}