Articles categorized as Political Theology
White evangelicals have a complicated relationship with Christian nationalism
As the specter of full-dress theocracy has dimmed, attention has shifted to a distinct but overlapping phenomenon: Christian nationalism.
Public reasoning in a Pandemic: Responding to Moore, Reno, and Littlejohn
This pandemic demands not only statesmanship from our political leaders, but clear-eyed guidance and counsel from our moral and spiritual leaders.
On being “Pro-Life” in a pandemic
Whatever else we say about the relationship between our responsibilities to protect the lives of those who are most vulnerable, we cannot pretend that these decisions are easy.
Communicating the gospel in a partisan world
The worship of Jesus Christ is a visible sign of Christ’s triumphal reign over the nations of the world. Yet such worship’s most fundamental form is endurance beneath conditions of injustice.
A failed attempt to reset the nationalism debate
What is the relationship between Christianity and nationalism?
Can justice be saved?
In these talks, which I delivered at Biola University’s Torrey Honors Institute, I attempt to lay out an evangelical account of justice that is responsive to current questions.
The impossibility of an evangelical conservatism
While I now find Huckabee’s willingness to impale himself on the altar of Trump reprehensible, it is not because I am averse to evangelical populism: I just want it to remain evangelical.
Hating “them” is easy: How can Americans live together in peace?
Without any kind of shared educational tradition, our public discourse hangs on assembling a bricolage of numbers and personal vignettes.
The distortions of progressive Christians: how religious liberty is in danger
The legal and social struggle between gay rights and Christian sexual ethics is real, but whatever challenges ‘losing’ the culture brings for conservative Christians, martyrdom is currently not among them.
What is marriage?
What Is Marriage? can be credited for reviving natural law arguments about the nature of marriage within the public square as well as the evangelical world.
In Defence of War: A reflection
Nigel Biggar’s masterful book on war does not quite win the argument against the pacifists.
The Politics of Silence: Questions for Peter Leithart
Conservatives might want to think more seriously about the value of silence in the culture war.
Martin Luther on the passions of evangelical politics
Luther’s account of the passions in his political theology provides helpful guidance for evangelicals.
Can there be an evangelical political theology?
The church’s life together is the soil from which political theology springs.
Young evangelicals still at war? A review of “A Faith of Our Own”
Jonathan Merritt seeks a non-partisan faith, but leaving behind the left-right culture clashes is harder than it seems.
Culture wars and the future of the Evangelical political witness
The only way through the culture wars is not to shout about our need to go beyond them, but to set about ignoring them altogether and get on with the work that is given to each generation: providing the positive vision for society that has been informed by our Christian commitments.
Let’s change hearts and minds (and laws, too)
To advocate culture over politics, without revisiting the grounds of both, will simply perpetuate the sort of cultural nihilism that currently plagues us.