political theology

Introduction The last “political theological” book I read was D. A. Carson’s Christ and culture revisited. I summarised that work as leaning towards a biblical-theology treatment of the study as a critique and corrective to Reinhold Niebuhr’s models of how Christ and culture relate to each other. Os Guinness' is more cultural or social critic than biblical scholar, and it shows. He bases many of his arguments on Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, writing in the introduction that “the vision of freedom outlined here owes everythign to the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and the wise and brilliant understanding of Rabbi Sacks…”...

Carson’s great strength in this book is avoiding the temptation of offering a ‘totalising’ model of how Christians (whether as individuals or as a ‘church’) ought to relate to the wider culture. As the title suggests, he begins this book by engaging with Reinhold Niebuhr’s ‘Christ and Culture,’ especially in considering the five models that Niebuhr identifies. I haven’t read Niebuhr’s work, but I found Carson’s treatment of Niebuhr’s work refreshingly even-handed....