Biblical stories about baptism are connected to, but also at odds with, historical theology about baptism as well as the current liturgical practices of baptism. Reading Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism together with contemporary theologies offers a glimpse of the radical solidarity of Jesus.
*This post originally appeared on the Politics of Scripture January 2, 2017.
How might we think about political theology in the absence of conventional scriptural, interpretive or institutional authorities together with their conceptual worlds?
Matthew’s careful quotation of Isaiah 60 urges us to perceive that the birth of the poor, brown boy in a back corner of the Roman empire was the dawning of God’s glory upon humanity. Let us, then, celebrate—not with fear and self-preservation, but with confident investment in human flourishing.
“What do I owe my fellow citizens whose conscience reaches different conclusions than my own?”
It seems like an important task of political theology is to critically reflect on moments of political crisis by pulling back the veil on its latent theological content.
How we conceive of diakonía sheds a potentially critical light on existing roles and institutions associated with ‘service’.
We must develop strategies to resist the political deployment of the image of the innocent victim as a tool of further oppression and we must seek to mobilize the image of the innocent victim towards the end of emancipation and liberation.
Queries on enfleshment, the nature of materiality and the corporeal intertwining with histories of coloniality and race relations cannot be separated from an understanding of political theology and its mobilization.
The question for us, and for the field of political theology, is how do we wish to live in the end?
Joseph knows that this situation with Mary is not about legalities, or honor or shame or what other people may think or say; it is about God bringing Christ to the world. All that matters is God’s call. Joseph honors Mary, and their marriage, this family, as the opportunity God has created to bring hope, salvation to all the world.
Let us remember Metz’s apocalyptic witness dangerously, in our texts and in our embodied acts of solidarity.
While political theology must possess planetary (global) concerns, it must work locally and collaborate across locales to further understanding, decision, and action to meet those concerns.