Christianity, Politics, and the Predicament of Evil

A Constructive Theological Ethic of Soulcraft and Statecraft

Bradley B. Burroughs

Christianity, Politics, and the Predicament of Evil overcomes a defining divide in contemporary Protestant political ethics created by two contrasting conceptions of politics. The first, exemplified in the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, construes politics as a matter of statecraft that utilizes the power of government to secure the greatest possible order and justice for society as a whole. The second, most prominently articulated by Stanley Hauerwas, maintains that politics concerns itself with the cultivation of virtue; consequently, it finds not the “well-ordered state” but the church to be the exemplar of politics.

Not only illuminating the divide between politics-as-statecraft and politics-as-soulcraft but also redeveloping the conceptual space between them, this book reconceives politics within a theological framework in which the eschatological City of God, rather than the well-ordered state or the faithful church, functions as the paradigm of political life. At the same time, it simultaneously recognizes that the existence of evil, which corrupts individual wills and social structures, inhibits human beings from building the City of God in this world. Analyzing, criticizing, and drawing resources from Niebuhr and Hauerwas, as well as looking beyond to Augustine, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, this book specifies the respective roles of soulcraft and statecraft in a political ethic capable of guiding Christians as they witness to God’s eschatological intention to establish the City of God in a world currently mired in the predicament of evil.

Lexington Books / Fortress Academic

Pages: 268 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-9787-0051-2 • Hardback • June 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-9787-0052-9 • eBook • June 2019 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Religion / Christian Theology / Ethics, Philosophy / Good & Evil, Religion / RELIGION / Politics & State

Christianity, Politics, and the Predicament of Evil

A Constructive Theological Ethic of Soulcraft and Statecraft

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Christianity, Politics, and the Predicament of Evil overcomes a defining divide in contemporary Protestant political ethics created by two contrasting conceptions of politics. The first, exemplified in the work of Reinhold Niebuhr, construes politics as a matter of statecraft that utilizes the power of government to secure the greatest possible order and justice for society as a whole. The second, most prominently articulated by Stanley Hauerwas, maintains that politics concerns itself with the cultivation of virtue; consequently, it finds not the “well-ordered state” but the church to be the exemplar of politics.

Not only illuminating the divide between politics-as-statecraft and politics-as-soulcraft but also redeveloping the conceptual space between them, this book reconceives politics within a theological framework in which the eschatological City of God, rather than the well-ordered state or the faithful church, functions as the paradigm of political life. At the same time, it simultaneously recognizes that the existence of evil, which corrupts individual wills and social structures, inhibits human beings from building the City of God in this world. Analyzing, criticizing, and drawing resources from Niebuhr and Hauerwas, as well as looking beyond to Augustine, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, this book specifies the respective roles of soulcraft and statecraft in a political ethic capable of guiding Christians as they witness to God’s eschatological intention to establish the City of God in a world currently mired in the predicament of evil.

Details

Lexington Books / Fortress Academic

Pages: 268 • Trim: 6¼ x 9⅜

978-1-9787-0051-2 • Hardback • June 2019 • $117.00 • (£90.00)

978-1-9787-0052-9 • eBook • June 2019 • $45.00 • (£35.00)

Subjects: Religion / Christian Theology / Ethics, Philosophy / Good & Evil, Religion / RELIGION / Politics & State

Author

Bradley B. Burroughs is visiting assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies at Allegheny College.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Politics, the City of God, the State, and the Soul

Part I: Surveying

1. The City of God: A Political Eschatology

2. The Predicament of Evil

Part II: Gathering Resources

3. Politics-as-Statecraft: Reinhold Niebuhr and the Governing of Society

4. Politics-as-Soulcraft: Stanley Hauerwas and the Church as Polis

Part III: Constructing

5. Soulcraft, Statecraft, and Christian Discipleship

Reviews

Bradley Burroughs' book, Christianity, Politics, and the Predicament of Evil, stands out as a crucial, timely work for the world and is a book for everyone who wishes to think critically about our political movement. A rare piece of scholarship that exudes moral conviction while also resisting partisan interpretations.

— Studies in Christian Ethics

Bradley Burroughs' book, Christianity, Politics and the Predicament of Evil offers clarity, insight on politics and a constructive theological ethic for Christian political discernment. A book for our time and is for anyone who wants a fresh reading of Augustine, an honest non-partisan appreciation of Hauerwas and Niebuhr, a faithful politics in a world of evil, and any student of theology who longs for a morally rich political theology.

— Dialog

This is an impressive effort to discern how Christians might live faithful political lives. It will be fruitful reading for seminarians and doctoral students.

— Lutheran Quarterly

This text "Christianity, Politics, and the Predicament of Evil: A Constructive Theological Ethic of Soulcraft and Statecraft" is organized and reads like a dissertation-------of platinum quality! The writing is clear and fluent and the structure of the argument is satisfyingly symmetrical.

— Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics

This book is a brilliant construction of political ethics at the borderlines of theology and political theory. The book offers a valuable approach to political theology and deftly maps the terrain of the ideological debates between liberal and conservative Christians on the important question of state and society relations in the United States. This is an essential book for Christian social ethics and America’s political thought.
— Nimi Wariboko, Boston University

Christianity, Politics, and the Predicament of Evil offers a fresh take on an old debate about the nature and purposes of politics given eschatological hope under conditions of sin. Critically rooted in classical theology as well as Protestant social ethics, Burroughs’ hybrid Augustinian-Wesleyan approach to soulcraft and statecraft loosens the grip of familiar alternatives in speaking to the concrete challenges of a new generation.
— Eric Gregory, Princeton University