The new book by N. T. Wright and Michael Bird is so good and comes at the right time as we head into an election season. Dive in and enjoy!
Here’s an overview via the publisher:
An urgent call for Christians everywhere to explore the nature of the kingdom amid the political upheaval of our day.
Should Christians be politically withdrawn, avoiding participation in politics to maintain their prophetic voice and to keep from being used as political pawns? Or should Christians be actively involved, seeking to utilize political systems to control the levers of power?
In Jesus and the Powers, N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird call Christians everywhere to discern the nature of Christian witness in fractured political environments. In an age of ascending autocracies, in a time of fear and fragmentation, amid carnage and crises, Jesus is king, and Jesus’s kingdom remains the object of the church’s witness and work.
Part political theology, part biblical overview, and part church history, this book argues that building for Jesus’s kingdom requires confronting empire in all its forms. This approach should orient Christians toward a form of political engagement that contributes to free democratic societies and vigorously opposes political schemes based on autocracy and nationalism. Throughout, Wright and Bird reflect on the relevance of this kingdom-oriented approach to current events, including the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the China-Taiwan tension, political turmoil in the USA, UK, and Australia, and the problem of Christian nationalism.
Table of Contents
- The kingdom of Jesus in the shadow of empire
- The Church between Jesus and Caesar
- Power and the ‘powers’ in early Christianity: John, Paul and the paradox of biblical politics
- The kingdom of God as vision and vocation
- The Church between submission and subversion
- The Church resisting the powers of today
- Liberalism and love in a time of fear and fragmentation
- Conclusion
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