Reading notes

Jeffrey has influenced me to look deeper into Anabaptist thought, something I’ve never taken the time to do before.

Today I read article Faith, Church and Nation: An Anabaptist Perspective by Stuart Murray Williams, and it’s like an espresso surge of awakening for me —

What theological and ethical principles should inform a post-Christendom vision for the political order?

• Understanding the state as one of the ‘principalities and powers’, created for human well-being, fallen and prone to idolatry and self-aggrandisement, but capable of at least partial redemption.

• Recognising the state is only one such power — although it often claims greater significance. What it can achieve is limited, because of its own inadequacies and the influence of other (economic, social, cultural and political) powers.

• A principled commitment to the freedom of the church from the state and the state from the church, liberating both to fulfil their divine vocations and interact with each other in diverse and creative ways.

• A hermeneutic of justice, rather than order, that prioritises the powerless and poor, and a vision of shalom that inspires multi-faceted goals and action.

• Insisting Christians owe primary allegiance to God’s kingdom and the global church community (and have obligations to our planet and global human community). National interest and party loyalty, though valid, are secondary. If Jesus is Lord, Caesar’s authority is limited.

• Suspicion of top-down notions of political engagement and confidence in the subversive and creative potential of prophetic truth-telling and grass-roots action. We may decide involvement in education, the arts, the media, business, industry, local government, symbolic protests or civil disobedience will have greater potential for effecting lasting change.

• Rejecting the philosophy that ‘the end justifies the means’ and adoption of ‘speaking the truth in love’ as a political strategy: affirming what is good in opposing viewpoints or parties, avoiding name-calling or manoeuvring for position, choosing gentleness and integrity over efficacy.

• Modest expectations that neither dismiss political engagement as worthless nor accord this messianic significance (as in Christendom and many post-Enlightenment secular systems).

Rodney Clapp writes: ‘Non-Constantinian Christians are in no position to overthrow the system. What we can hope to do, most often and over the long haul, is survive it and subvert it to its own good. What we are about might then be called sanctified subversion.’

I see much wisdom here that invites further exploration. Yes! An Easter gift?