Thursday, December 20, 2007

Toward a Political Theology

Here is an excerpt from John Franke's Barth for Armchair Theologians. So far I have found this to be a delightful and stimulating read.

"In other words, attempting to open up society and bring it to Christ is not humanly possible. Human beings would have no more success in bringing society to Christ than they would at bringing Christ to society. IN light of this state of affairs, the only possible answer is to let God be God. It is God's help that we need, and we will "deceive" society about this reality "if we set to work building churches and chapels and do not learn to wait upon God in a wholly new way." We must learn to wait because "God alone can save this world." - Barth for Armchair Theologians, 53.


2 comments:

Ryan said...

Well, well, well. Ben is back. Why did you title your post "toward a political theology"? Just wondering.

Benjamin Camp said...

Yeah, I am back! Hopefully, I will have some time to blog since I have a few months off from school. I titled this post "toward a political theology" mainly because I have been thinking about the relationship between our present political discourse in the US, in light of the upcoming election, and theology. I thought this whole section on Barth's Tambach Lecture was quite helpful and stimulating for the development of a political theology or a theo-politic. By political theology, I simply mean a way in which to engage Christianly (or maybe I should say Churchly) in the political discourse of our current day. I want to read the whole lecture.