Category: Political Theology
What are nations for?
Once in college I asked my pastor if he had time to get coffee so I could ask his advice on something that had been bothering me for several months. I was feeling stretched to my limits because I was...
Rise of the Titans: Fascism, Christianity, and the Seduction of the Brutal
If you visit the Hotel du Lac, an inexplicably French-named bed and breakfast catering to German and British on the shores of Lake Garda, in Italy, you will likely see some of the hotel’s collection of decorative inter-war travel posters,...
In Defense of Nationalism: Notes on Yoram Hazony and His Critics
You didn’t have to be a close follower of contemporary political theory to know that Yoram Hazony’s The Virtue of Nationalism was going to be the equivalent of shooting a paintball into a hornet’s nest. Here was a book with...
Political Theology in an Age of Discontent
By Jonathan Cole (This piece is the introduction to his new book Christian Political Theology in an Age of Discontent) Anarchist political philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon memorably defined theology as “the science of the infinitely absurd.”[1] Proudhon, who made this remark in...
The War of All Against One: Why Christians Should Not Be Populists
(Presented for Delivery at the 2019 Henry Institute Symposium on Christianity and Politics, Calvin College, April 26, 2019)
What Kuyper Gets Wrong: On the Problem with Denominationalism
Once upon a time, the state shared the public square with the church. The central location of the church building in every European town is mute testimony to this state of affairs. But those days are long gone. Nowadays there...
In Praise of Uncertainty
Imagine that you are a young man and one day your father commands you to find the donkeys that have wandered off, like poor young Saul was commanded to do in 1 Samuel. How will you do this? To find the...
Romans 13, Jeff Sessions, and Separating Families at the Border
In Dr. James Dobson’s Letter from 2012 predicting the dire consequences of an Obama election, he included the possibility of homeschooling families being forced to flee to Australia or New Zealand to continue educating their children at home. Imagine, if you...
Stanley Hauerwas: Modern American Puddleglum
The scene is despairing: four adventurers have lingered far too long in a subterranean city. Slowly, under the enchantment of an evil witch, they have begun to forget that there is life beyond the cavern she rules imperiously. With the...
The Crisis in Christian Discipline and the Opportunity Before Us
We are long overdue for a sustained argument about the purpose and means of church discipline as well as the broader role of Christian discipline in the life of individual Christians and Christian communities. By church discipline, I mean some...