Christ and the Common Life: Political Theology and the Case for Democracy
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
In Christ and the Common Life Luke Bretherton provides an introduction to historical and contemporary theological reflection on politics and opens up a compelling vision for a Christian commitment to democracy.
In dialogue with Scripture and various traditions, Bretherton examines the dynamic relationship between who we are in relation to God and who we are as moral and political animals. He addresses fundamental political questions about poverty and injustice, forming a common life with strangers, and handling power constructively. And through his analysis of debates concerning, among other things, race, class, economics, the environment, and interfaith relations, he develops an innovative political theology of democracy as a way through which Christians can speak and act faithfully within our current context.
Read as a whole, or as stand-alone chapters, the book guides readers through the political landscape and identifies the primary vocabulary, ideas, and schools of thought that shape Christian reflection on politics in the West. Ideal for the classroom, Christ and the Common Life equips students to understand politics and its positive and negative role in fostering neighbor love.
- Provides an introduction to historical and contemporary theological reflection on politics
- Examines why Christians should be committed to democracy
- Proposes that talk of God and talk of politics are coemergent and mutually constitutive
- Part One: Case Studies in Political Theology
- Part Two: Sustaining a Common Life
- Part Three: Forming a Common Life
Luke Bretherton’s new book is a tour de force: with clarity, empathy, and impressive learning he maps out the many current forces that threaten the future of Western democracy, then turns to defend it once more from the perspective of the demanding Christian teaching on mutual love. Perhaps the most distinctive achievement of this volume is its capacity to straddle the debates on both sides of the Atlantic and to draw them into illuminating contrast. Written with incisive clarity and remarkable accessibility, this book is not only a scholarly achievement of great note but it also is a useful tool for teaching and discussion in universities, seminaries, and churches.
—Sarah Coakley, University of Cambridge and Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
Christ and the Common Life is a monumental achievement in Christian political theology. Demonstrating mastery of a huge literature and multiple, diverse sub-traditions of Christian political thought, and offering a disciplined constructive theological vision of his own, Luke Bretherton offers important, often breakthrough reflections on the most significant issues in this field. In the end, the book offers hope for the renewal of Christian engagement with democratic politics, all over the world. An indispensable contribution
—David P. Gushee, Mercer University
Luke Bretherton has written an impressively expansive, smart, and sophisticated introduction to Christian political theology. Each chapter offers refreshing new perspectives on important topics. Moreover, Bretherton brings together and guides us through a wide array of scholarly literatures, from secular political theory to the sociology of Pentecostalism to Hebrew Bible scholarship, while also developing his own distinctive, persuasive theological voice. Christ and the Common Life will surely set the agenda in the field for a generation to come, orienting Christian political theology in the direction of justice.
—Vincent Lloyd, Villanova University
- Title: Christ and the Common Life: Political Theology and the Case for Democracy
- Author: Luke Bretherton
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Publication Date: 2019
- Pages: 480
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Topic: Political Theology