Review:
James Hunter, in his book To Change the World, tackles the political theologies adopted by American
Christians in their diverse efforts to be faithful in the world. He approaches
this contentious issue as a sociologist and as a Christian. With detailed, historical accuracy he describes
the political/religious relationships with the world that the Christian Right
(conservatives/fundamentalists), the Christian Left (liberals and moderates) and
the neo-Anabaptists (Quakers, etc.) have taken. He calls the political
theologies of each of the three groups “competing myths” and notes “they become
the basis of some measure of exclusion and division in the church, especially
to the degree that they are embraced uncritically” (James Davidson Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 176). He
says, “the tragedy [is that]…many Christians – and Christian conservatives most
significantly – unwittingly embrace some of the most corrosive aspects of the
cultural disintegration they decry. By nurturing its resentments, sustaining
them through a discourse of negation towards outsiders and in cases pursuing
their world of power, they become functional Nietzscheans participating in the
cultural breakdowns they try to resist.” His bottom line is that “Christians have
not only embraced strategies that are incapable of bringing about the ends to
which they aspire, they have also embraced strategies that are deeply
problematic, short-sighted, and at times profoundly corrupted” (pp. 175, 193). Instead,
Hunter offers as an alternative ‘a theology of faithful presence’. “For the Christian,
if there is a possibility of human flourishing in a world such as ours, it begins
when God’s word of love becomes flesh in us, is embodied in us, is enacted
through us” (p. 241). He
advocates this incarnational approach to the divisive political theologies existing
up to now. An important book for those with interest in how political science,
history and Christian social activism have played out in recent centuries in
the United States.
4 stars M.L.
Codman-Wilson, Ph.D.
Excerpts:
“The three political theologies
[Christian right, Christian left, and neo-Anabaptist] are the leading public
edge of more complex paradigms of political engagements: ‘defensive against’, ‘relevance
to’, and ‘purity from’ the world… Political and theological conservatism…seeks
to create a defensive enclave that is set against the world. This ‘defensive
against’ paradigm has long been embraced by Protestant Fundamentalists and mainstream
Evangelicals, though it has also become a strategy in recent decades for many
conservative Catholics… [Since] pluralism has been massively threatening…, they
have sought to resist the erosion of the truth claims of Christianity by
attacking the world’s efforts to undermine the integrity of the Word of God” (pp. 213-214, 219, 222). They say: “Political action will return
a sense of cultural ownership to Christian citizens nationwide, ‘preserve,
protect and defend the Judeo-Christian values that made this the greatest
country in history, ‘begin renewing American culture,’ save traditional marriage
= and the traditional family, ‘ensure broadcast decency” [etc]… It’s either God’s
way or the way of social disintegration” (pp. 126,
119).
“More recently, the ‘relevance to’ paradigm is a paradigm of
engagement embraced by Evangelicals in the ‘seeker-church’ movement, and by
more progressive Evangelicals in the ‘emerging church’ movement… Their emphasis
is less on the defense of the faith than on being relevant and connected to
contemporary culture. By the late 1960s, progressives were left in creed and
practice with less and less that resembled anything like historic Christianity...
In the ‘seeker church’ movement, the emphasis away from the use and explication
of Creedal confession is obvious, since the whole point is to focus on the ‘felt needs’ of the person in the
pew –especially the felt-needs of non-believers”(pp.
215, 220, 216).
“Those who operate within the ‘purity from’ paradigm ...take
the view that there is very little that can be done for the world because, in
its fallen state, the world is irredeemable aside from Christ’s return. [These]Christians…[say]
the only justifiable strategy is to separate from darkness as the community of
light” (pp. 218, 220).