Politics - According to the Bible

Politics - According to the Bible
Author: Wayne A. Grudem
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2010-09-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0310413583

Should Christians be involved in political issues? This comprehensive and readable book presents a political philosophy from the perspective that the Gospel pertains to all of life, including politics. Politics—According to the Bible is an in-depth analysis of conservative and liberal plans to do good for the nation, evaluated in light of the Bible and common sense. Evangelical Bible professor, and author of the bestselling book Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem unpacks and rejects five common views about Christian influence on politics: "compel religion," "exclude religion," "all government is demonic," "do evangelism, not politics," and "do politics, not evangelism." Instead, he defends a position of "significant Christian influence on government" and explains the Bible's teachings about the purpose of civil government and the characteristics of good or bad governments. Grudem provides a thoughtful analysis of over fifty specific and current political issues dealing with: The protection of life. Marriage, the family, and children. Economic issues and taxation. The environment. National defense Relationships to other nations. Freedom of speech and religion. Quotas. And special interests. Throughout this book, he makes frequent application to the current policies of the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States, but the principles discussed here are relevant for any nation.

The Bible in Politics

The Bible in Politics
Author: Richard Bauckham
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0664237088

This second edition of Bauckham's wonderful work is essential reading for understanding the relationship between the Bible and politics. The enduring value of The Bible in Politics is that it teaches the reader how to read the Bible politically and to gain an understanding of the social relevance of the Bible that is more disciplined, more informed, more imaginative, and more politically fruitful than many interpreters--past and present--have achieved.

Bossuet: Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture

Bossuet: Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture
Author: Jacques Bénigne Bossuet
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 500
Release: 1999
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780521368070

This 1991 book was the first ever English rendition of the classic statement of divine right absolutism, published in 1707. Jacques-Benigne Bossuet argues in the Politics that a general society of the entire human race, governed by Christian charity, has given way (after the Fall) to the necessity of politcs, law, and absolute hereditary monarchy. That monarchy - seen as natural, universal and divinely ordained (beginning with David and Solomon) is defended in the first half of the book. The last part, added soon before Bossuet's death, goes on to take up the rights of the Church, the distinction between absolutism and arbitrariness, and causes of just war. Patrick Riley has provided full supporting materials including a chronology, guide to further reading, and a lucid introduction placing Bossuet in his historical and intellectual context.

Subversive Jesus

Subversive Jesus
Author: Craig Warren Greenfield
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2016-04-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 031034624X

When Jesus left the most exclusive gated community in the universe to come live with the people he loved and gave his life for, he turned everything we know and believe about life on its head. Jesus said that he came to bring good news to the poor, but most Western Christians remain disconnected and isolated from the poor and their contexts of injustice. Even our churches echo society’s pressure to isolate ourselves from the margins (e.g. by moving to a better suburb) and instead teach us how to be “nice people” who worship a “nice Jesus” and don’t disrupt the status quo. Convinced that Jesus places love for the poor and the pursuit of justice central, Craig Greenfield has sought to follow in Christ’s footsteps by living among people at the edges of society for the last fourteen years. His quest to follow this Subversive Jesus has taken Craig and his young family from the slums of Asia to inner city Canada and back again. This is the story of how Jesus led them to the margins: initiating the Pirates of Justice flash mobs, sharing their home with detoxing crackheads, welcoming homeless panhandlers and prostitutes to the dinner table, and ultimately sparking a movement to reach the world’s most vulnerable children. This book is a strong and potentially controversial critique of the status quo too often found in our churches, but it offers an inspirational and hopeful vision of another way. While readers may not relocate to a slum, they will certainly come to view their lives and ministry through a fresh lens—reconsidering how they are uniquely called by Jesus to subversively love the poor and break down systems of injustice in their sphere of influence.

Bible Politics

Bible Politics
Author: Steve D. Bracht
Publisher:
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2013-10-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781939288141

No one will ever be able to righteously defend the Republican Party, Tea Party Republicans or any other socially conservative political party with a bible, in regard to how they treat the vast majority of the people, including the most needy among us. Yet the overwhelming majority of those proclaiming to be Christian in America religiously get out in droves to vote for the Republicans, who continually work against serving the needs of the people. I've heard many Christians including pastors and bible teachers who talk as though Republicans represent Christian values and Democrats do not, but this is not biblically correct. This book sets the record straight. BIBLE POLITICS brings over 200 examples of bible scriptures which are very much in favor of the more socially liberal Democrats and contrary to popular belief, are much more against the politics of the conservative Republican and conservative Tea Party Republicans.

The Good of Politics (Engaging Culture)

The Good of Politics (Engaging Culture)
Author: James W. Skillen
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2014-03-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441244999

In this addition to the acclaimed Engaging Culture series, a highly respected author and Christian thinker offers a principled, biblical perspective on engaging political culture as part of one's calling. James Skillen believes that constructive Christian engagement depends on the belief that those made in the image of God are created not only for family life, agriculture, education, science, industry, and the arts but also for building political communities, justly ordered for the common good. He argues that God made us to be royal stewards of public governance from the outset and that the biblical story of God's creation, judgment, and redemption of all things in Jesus Christ has everything to do with politics and government. In this irenic, nonpartisan treatment of an oft-debated topic, Skillen critically assesses current political realities and helps readers view responsibility in the political arena as a crucial dimension of the Christian faith.

The Power of Scripture

The Power of Scripture
Author: Andreas Pečar
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2021-12-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 1800733216

In England, from the Reformation era to the outbreak of the Civil War, religious authority contributed to popular political discourse in ways that significantly shaped the legitimacy of the monarchy as a form of rule as well as the monarch’s ability to act politically. The Power of Scripture casts aside parochial conceptualizations of that authority’s origins and explores the far-reaching consequences of political biblicism. It shows how arguments, narratives, and norms taken from Biblical scripture not only directly contributed to national religious politics but also left lasting effects on the socio-political development of Stuart England.

Constantine's Bible

Constantine's Bible
Author: David L. Dungan
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2007
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781451406122

Most college and seminary courses on the New Testament include discussions of the process that gave shape to the New Testament. David Dungan re-examines the primary source for the history, the Ecclesiastical History of the fourth-century Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, in the light of Hellenistic political thought. He reaches new conclusions: that we usually use the term "canon" incorrectly; that the legal imposition of a "canon" or "rule" upon scripture was a fourth- and fifth-century phenomenon enforced with the power of the Roman imperial government; that the forces shaping the New Testament canon are much earlier than the second-century crisis occasioned by Marcion, and that they are political forces. Dungan discusses how the scripture selection process worked, book-by-book, as he examines the criteria used-and not used-to make these decisions. He describes the consequences of the emperor Constantine's tremendous achievement in transforming orthodox, Catholic Christianity into imperial Christianity. --From publisher's description.

The Biblical Politics of John Locke

The Biblical Politics of John Locke
Author: Kim Ian Parker
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1554581192

John Locke is often thought of as one of the founders of the Enlightenment, a movement that sought to do away with the Bible and religion and replace them with scientific realism. But Locke was extremely interested in the Bible, and he was engaged by biblical theology and religion throughout his life. In this new book, K.I. Parker considers Locke’s interest in Scripture and how that interest is articulated in the development of his political philosophy. Parker shows that Locke’s liberalism is inspired by his religious vision and, particularly, his distinctive understanding of the early chapters of the book of Genesis. Unlike Sir Robert Filmer, who understood the Bible to justify social hierarchies (i.e., the divine right of the king, the first-born son’s rights over other siblings, and the “natural” subservience of women to men), Locke understood from the Bible that humans are in a natural state of freedom and equality to each other. The biblical debate between Filmer and Locke furnishes scholars with a better understanding of Lockes political views as presented in his Two Treatises. The Biblical Politics of John Locke demonstrates the impact of the Bible on one of the most influential thinkers of the seventeenth century, and provides an original context in which to situate the debate concerning the origins of early modern political thought.