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Category: Politics of Scripture

The Politics of Scripture series follows the Revised Common Lectionary to connect the biblical text to political issues in ancient and contemporary thought and practice. You can search past archives by scriptural book here. We welcome contributions from scholars, religious leaders, and activists. Contact the series editor, Tim McNinch at [email protected].

Judgment in Light—Psalm 50:1-6

God brings his judgment in and as the light, providing us with a pattern for human justice.

Re-Anarchizing Christianity

For Christians resistance must mean re-anarchizing Christianity, that is, imagining the church as a different kind of political body that transgresses national and racial and class borders in creative ways.

The Silence of the Messiah—Mark 1:29-39 (J. Leavitt Pearl)

Sometimes effective resistance necessitates speech or decisive direct action. Yet sometimes resistance also demands a tactical silence.

As One Having Authority—Mark 1:21-28

One of the most striking features of Jesus’s teaching and practice was its authority, which both liberated and bound his hearers. Does the Church dare to speak with authority today?

Forget Schmitt!

Political Theology Must Follow Agamben’s “Double Paradigm” of Sovereignty. The following is the guest editorial for the current issue of the print journal Political Theology (Volume 19, Issue 1, February 2018). 

Fishers for a New Kingdom—Mark 1:14-20 (Robert Williamson Jr.)

The call of Jesus to Simon, Andrew, James, and John summons them to leave behind a way of life that supported an exploitative imperial economy and to devote their efforts to serving the kingdom of God instead.

In the Time of King Herod—Isaiah 60:1-6; Matthew 2:1-12 (Amy Allen)

Epiphany is a story of a baby who, in the time of King Herod, despite all the principalities and powers that continue to overpower and oppress in our world, offers a different hope.

The Politics of the Shepherds’ Sign—Luke 2:8-20 (Alastair Roberts)

The story of the sign given to the shepherds—the Child wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger—both recalls and anticipates other scriptural events in significant yet surprising ways. It also reminds us of our vocation, as those who must declare the good news of the sign of Christ to the shepherds of our age.

The Politics of Divine Disruption—Luke 1:46b-55 (Fritz Wendt)

The Magnificat is a song of divine disruption, the song of God’s revolution.

The Politics of Memory and Hope—Luke 1:46b-55 (J. Leavitt Pearl)

Mary’s Magnificat challenges us to bend our sight, to look both forward and backward. For without a vision of the future, without a messianic hope, we can only ever mourn the past—we can never envision its regeneration, a new heaven and a new earth.