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Essays

Prisoners of Politics

Churches are locally oriented and present to the concerns of everyday life in the community. As an institution it has been an organized center of everyday life for its membership.

Political Theology, Volume 19, Issue 3, May 2018 is now available

Vincent Lloyd on James Cone, Ilsup Ahn on Labor, Immigration and Forgiveness, Silas Morgan on Ideology and liberation, and so much more.

New Vatican Document Promotes Transparency in the Global Economy

The Vatican’s new document Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones renews the call for greater regulation and more transparency in the global economy, ten years after the financial crisis.

Crisis, Conversion, Critique, or, Practicing Black Study Now: Against the Natural and the New

For it is only through understanding black culture as worthy of attention that we can feel it as worthy of enjoyment.

“Here Am I; Send Me!”—Isaiah 6:1-8

Isaiah the prophet received his call; we must be prepared to receive ours.

Not Light but Fire

In a white supremacist culture, one crucial precondition of any true and faithful theological speech is repentance. True theology is not light but fire.

Giving Voice to the Groanings—Romans 8:22-27

Giving voice and hope to groaning and suffering creatures is the political task that we can take up for the oppressed creation in imitation of the Spirit, who advocates for us to our true Sovereign for the hope of our bodily redemption.

The Habitation Made Desolate—Acts 1:15-26

The gory fate of Judas is an unsettling feature of the narrative of Acts for many modern readers. Yet recovering the New Testament authors’ sense of the fearful consequences of opposing the reign of Christ is a necessary task for political theology.

Don’t Just Stand There!—Acts 1:1-11

Rooted to the spot after the Ascension, the disciples needed to be told, not primarily what to think, but what to do.

Commemorating James Cone

The founder of Black Liberation Theology, the Rev. Dr. James Cone died on April 28, 2018. We asked scholars, religious leaders, and activists around the Political Theology Network to share their brief reflections on the passing of this scholar, pastor, visionary, and prophet.

Silence in Jane Eyre

Like all sacred texts, Jane Eyre does not simply offer clear, direct answers to the questions I ask of it. It requires, rather, the work of exegesis.

A Dry Tree Made Fruitful—Acts 8:26-40; 1 John 4:7-21

In both Luke’s account of the Ethiopian eunuch and John’s discussion of love, the New Testament holds out the promise of a chastened yet real utopian vision, founded in God’s self-gift in King Jesus.