A fine addition to an expanding list of historically grounded monographs on Christian Reconstruction.
political theology
Must Baptists Reject A Christian State?
A quick look at Baptists in the 1600s troubles common assumptions about their politics.
Marginal Baptists? A Brief Response to Russell Moore
Are Baptists really at their best when they’re on the fringes?
A Letter Regarding War, April 15, 1818
An admirably concise, compelling, and elegant summary of the classic Christian just war tradition by John Jay.
Imagining a People: An Essay on the Possibility of Political Representation
The second installment of an essay reflecting on political theology through the lens of Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy.
The Christian Right (and Wrong)
“Protestants and American Conservatism” provides useful history, but a more charitable and accurate assessment is needed to develop a contemporary Protestant political theology
Christ and Caesar: A Response to John MacArthur
Last week, John MacArthur used his immense stature in the evangelical church to call Christians to civil disobedience. WE
“Presbyterians” and the Making of an Informal Establishment (Pt. 2)
So far, I have worked to argue that the English Reformed tradition had already become considerably less magisterial by the mid-seventeenth century. Next, I want to suggest that Cromwell’s move towards supporting a kind of multiple establishment had echoes in the early republic, first in the abortive attempts to create shared establishments that would support churches of various denominations, as was attempted by Jefferson’s enemies in Virginia, then by the creation of an informal evangelical establishment in which Presbyterians and Congregationalists played the central role.
The Decline of the Magisterial Tradition and the Rise of the Cromwellian Consensus (Pt. 1)
After the conclusion of the English Civil War, the tensions between two Puritan emphases began to become apparent: the ideal of the “godly magistracy,” which assumed general uniformity in religious practice, and the tendency towards a “gathered church,” which had encouraged the gathering of the “godly” in separate assemblies.
The Neglected Craft: Prudence in Reformed Political Thought
Aristotle described politics as involving art or craft (techne). It, too, required skill. It, too, could produce excellent, even wondrous edifices: regimes. Once upon a time, the Reformed tradition saw politics in the same manner. Althusius, for example, spoke of “the art of governing.”[1] Joseph Caryl, a Westminster Divine, described rulers as engaging in an “art” or a “craft.” These thinkers, moreover, developed this artistry, doing so consciously within a Reformed framework.