Political Theology

“Like Leeman, I’m not beholden to the ‘Christian nationalism’ label….I more frequently talk in the language of historic Protestant political thought. And it’s on that basis that I’d like to offer a few critiques of Leeman’s position.” - 9 Marks

(Filing on Leeman’s article here)

“our modest approach in this essay is to survey English Baptist confessions from the seventeenth century, the beginning of Baptist thought, and categorize the political theology found there.” - London Lyceum

“God’s righteousness is what makes human rights right. What we call human rights are right only if God says they are right.” - Andy Naselli

“I would recommend that Wilson read two books: Augustine’s ‘The City of God’ and Greg Boyd’s ‘The Myth of a Christian Nation.’ According to BOTH, before the return of Christ there can be no ‘City of God’ or “Christian Nation.” - Roger Olson

“I don’t think we can deny that government has authority to make regulations to protect life. In fact, it is a significant purpose of government.” - Don Johnson

“Quietism is the tendency to dismiss political affairs as thoroughly evil and to avoid participating in them as much as possible….Triumphalism is the tendency to make political affairs central to the Christian life.” - TGC

“…while Jesus is neither a Democrat nor Republican, there are things he taught about morality, the state, and the church which a believer should factor into his political, social, and cultural thinking and practice.” - J.P. Moreland

“Although it is decidedly true that they championed a particular understanding of grace and faith that took issue with their Roman Catholic counterparts, … they assumed the natural law as a part of the fabric of the created order and therein maintained continuity with those across the Reformation divide.” - Public Discourse

“Absolute freedom of speech is not a moral right. … there can be no moral right to commit wrong, although there may often be a legal right. And clearly a great deal of speech, expression, and writing is wrong—whether by spreading falsehood, seducing to sin, tearing down the innocent, and much more.” - TGC

“…ruling the ‘spirit of the trickster’ out of hand runs the theological risk of mistaking longstanding human conventions for points of natural law—just as, in a slightly different context, the priests of Jesus’s day confused whether the Sabbath was made for man or vice versa” - John Ehret