THE Feast of Christ the King — in full, and much more grandly, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe — will quickly have its centenary. Many sermons have sought to melt and even clarify (away?) the notion of Jesus as King, however many worshippers are left with discomfort. Communicate, or sing, of him as “servant king”; however “King” nonetheless appears to take a seat uneasily on the shoulders of the one whose principal self-description was as “Son of Man”, whose kingdom references had been principally of the Kingdom of God, and whose mission was completed on the cross.

Tom Wright and Michael F. Hen take up the problem of witnessing to the “Kingdom of Jesus”, situated within the “shadow of empire”. How are up to date Christians to observe Jesus and the Church to witness within the face of the “powers” so turbulently and disturbingly at work on the planet?

The authors take their readers with zest and verve on not only one, however many, high-speed excursions by way of the histories of Greece and Rome, their politics and their philosophy, and the interactions between these civilisations and the unfolding biblical story of salvation. They search to point out how, within the midst of all of the turbulence of the current day, it’s nonetheless true that Jesus is King, and, subsequently, in a ceaselessly repeated phrase, the first job of Christians is to “construct for the Kingdom”.

Meaning particularly referring to empire, the choice “kingdoms” of this world. So, we aren’t, tempo Francis Fukuyama, at “the top of historical past”; Christianity can’t be understood with out bearing witness among the many world’s empires, one thing that the Church since Constantine has completed variously by confronting, accepting, submitting — and infrequently colluding.

The headings of the seven chapters — “The Kingdom of Jesus within the shadow of empire”, “The Church between Jesus and Caesar”, “Energy and the powers in early Christianity: John, Paul and the paradox of biblical politics”, “The Kingdom of God as imaginative and prescient and vocation”, “The Church between submission and subversion”, “The Church resisting the powers of as we speak”, and “Liberalism and love in a time of concern and fragmentation” — are indicators, along with the assertive subheadings, of the guide’s considerably scatter-gun strategy to its theme: numerous theological, historic, and political subjects are briefly produced and typically reappear afterward.

On the optimistic aspect, this guide of fewer than 200 pages is a mine of knowledge. Concepts and practices present within the historic world are ranged alongside some 200 biblical citations, inserting Jesus and the Church on the one hand and the encircling empires on the opposite. There are, nonetheless, some adverse outcomes of the best way through which the authors perform their job: the strategy is so breathless and fast that there’s ceaselessly the impulse to ask for the enterprise to pause lengthy sufficient for severe reflection: making connections between biblical religion and political points actually wants their repeated rhetorical assertions of the kingship of Christ to be labored out in relation to the complexities of worldwide and nationwide political selections.

A very severe omission in a guide on Jesus and “the powers” is any severe examination of the financial and monetary questions which can be central to our present politics. The phrases “monetary disaster” happen greater than as soon as, however solely as one amongst many present challenges that obtain a point out however with out the intense reflection that makes engagement so essential and so theologically difficult.

The authors declare that their guide just isn’t like others’ forays into political theology, neither advising Christians on the suitable approach to suppose and act on particular problems with as we speak nor merely summary and theoretical. That isn’t a good description of the wealth of political theology, however, provided that declare to be totally different, I discover it a bit disappointing to seek out on the finish of the journey that liberal democracy and its companion, “assured pluralism”, is their vacation spot; many others have argued for that decision.

To finish with simply repeating Micah’s imaginative and prescient of individuals every beneath their very own vine and fig tree is extraordinary: not, absolutely, a sensible account of modern-day capitalism as it’s or realistically ever may very well be. Given the welcome proliferation of radical Evangelical social considering, it’s a pity to seek out that so racy a journey and such an erudite and wide selection of sources and subjects results in so bland a conclusion.

Two issues, not on to do with the content material, can’t be averted. First, the authors, having an uncontrolled dependancy to alliterative pairings (I counted 17 earlier than the top of the preface), appear unaware that it is a system whose over-use turns into simply wearisome and provides to the sense of a rhetorical tract. Second, it’s uncomfortable to not be advised what sort of collaboration between the authors this guide represents: Wright’s title is printed on the entrance cowl in a fount practically twice the dimensions of that allotted to Hen. The authors might imagine that this discomfort is unfounded, however, missing an evidence, a reader is entitled to wonder if this actually was a collaboration.

There isn’t any doubt concerning the want for theological materials to encourage a brand new era of Christians on the whole, and Evangelical Christians specifically, in going through the political challenges of this time; however this guide, sadly, fails to supply that. Informative and fascinating as it’s, its content material must breathe extra slowly and, like a lot up to date political theology, present extra detailed assets for going through the complicated politics of our world with knowledge and braveness.

The Rt Revd Dr Peter Selby is an Honorary Visiting Professor in Theology and Spiritual Research at King’s Faculty, London. He’s a former Bishop of Worcester, Bishop to HM Prisons, and President of the Nationwide Council for Unbiased Monitoring Boards.

Jesus and the Powers: Christian political witness in an age of totalitarian terror and dysfunctional democracies
Tom Wright and Michael F. Hen
SPCK £12.99
(978-0-281-09007-5)
Church Instances Bookshop £11.69

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