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Guides for the Perplexed
Political Theology: A Guide for the Perplexed
There is an increasingly intense interest in political theology amongst contemporary scholars and students. Yet, while there are many authors engaging in political theology, there are very few resources about political theology which aim to orient students and other recent new-comers to the field. This is a concise and accessible advanced introduction which distinguishes various approaches to political theology, and which explores several of the central issues addressed in political theologies. Theological students will be able to approach courses and readings in political theology with a renewed confidence with this overview in hand.
208 pages, Paperback
First published May 31, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 28, 2025
Super helpful as an introduction to the field of political theology. Phillips insightfully explains key concepts and tensions for understanding the complex conversation within political theology while introducing the reader to important voices and traditions.
Many of her chapters were insightful, but her chapter, “Oppression, Marginalization, and Liberation,” lacked much of the depth and insight that other chapters had. It felt like a tack-on and an area Phillips didn’t seem as interested or familiar in.
The book is a great jumping off point for further interest in many different directions!
Many of her chapters were insightful, but her chapter, “Oppression, Marginalization, and Liberation,” lacked much of the depth and insight that other chapters had. It felt like a tack-on and an area Phillips didn’t seem as interested or familiar in.
The book is a great jumping off point for further interest in many different directions!
February 1, 2022
A brief and very helpful map of political theology. It is not exhaustive, but provides good foundations and frames of reference
May 19, 2026
This guide introduces the reader to the subject of Political Theology. William Cavanaugh and Peter Scott in their companion to political theology, has defined it as:
The political was always considered as one of the central concerns of Christian theology.
CHAPTER 1: THE EMERGENCE OF POLITICAL THEOLOGY
Some political theologians are particularly attentive to the scriptures containing works of political theology. The author discusses the case of John Howard Yoder, a Mennonite theologian with Anabaptist background, and Oliver O'Donovan, an Anglican.
Yoder articulated that Jesus is depicted as a political figure in the Bible, who preferred the prophetic/exilic vision of sojourning in opposition to the Davidic vision, thus redefining kingship.
Yoder believed that this transcendence of church was undermined by Constantinianism (referring to the Edict of Milan, that ended the Diocletian persecution of Christians and the subsequent marriage between Roman Empire and Christianity):
Secular rulers (Roman) were now understood as God's particular servants and the church was reduced to a post of 'chaplaincy'. Yoder's interpretation of the political theology of the scriptures was counter-politics of the gathered, believing community of God's people — marked by visible faithfulness to God's sovereignty instead of grasping for political power, redefining politics through the cruciform shape of a church practicing non-violent servant leadership.
OLIVER O'DONOVAN
O'Donovan opposed Yoder in declaring the prophetic/exilic vision as normative. He argues that 'Jesus laid claim to the legacy of Davidic expectation in his great entry into Jerusalem.' He radically disagrees with Yoder when he argues that the church's 'essential nature as a governed society' — a political society governed by Christ — 'is hidden, to be discerned by faith as the ascended Christ who governs it is to be discerned by faith.' O'Donovan disagrees because he does not believe Christ's reign over all authorities is necessarily, or has been historically, hidden.
AUGUSTINE AND THE TWO CITIES
Augustine described two cities: the city of God and the earthly city. (Many have confused the two cities as representing 'church and state' — this is inaccurate.)
The city of God is created by love of God, founded in peace, and always ultimately orientated towards loving God.
The city of earth is created by self-love, founded in violence, and is orientated towards glorying in itself.
These two cities are interwoven and intermixed within and throughout human history. Only in the eschaton will the earthly city pass away and the city of God exist unmingled.
CHAPTER 2: APPROACHES TO POLITICAL THEOLOGY
Four ways of understanding variations between approaches to political theology:
(1) Theological understanding of creation, fall, human nature
(2) Approaches according to different theological traditions
(3) Three approaches in 20th Century (Political Theology, Public Theology and Liberation Theology)
(4) Second generation of these approaches
OPTIMISM VERSUS PESSIMISM — OR COVENANT VERSUS LEVIATHAN
Optimistic about human nature (Thomistic): Thomistic political theologies share Thomas's faith in the goodness of the created order and his conviction that God intends human government to contribute to human flourishing — what Thomas calls 'the common good.'
Pessimistic about human nature (Augustinian): Human government as it exists was not part of God's original intentions; rather it is a consequence of the fall, required for the restraint and limitation of the sinfulness of our interrelations.
In short: Augustine considers government a necessity due to the fall, while Aquinas considers it an inherent feature of God's created order and human nature.
COVENANT VERSUS LEVIATHAN
Jürgen Moltmann has described a related distinction in terms of 'covenant' and 'Leviathan':
Covenant — associated with Calvinist Federalism — holds that in the establishment of governments, humans enter into covenant with one another, related but subordinate to their covenant with God. This theory of government is based in trust: God's trust in human ability to form such a covenant, and trust of humans in one another.
Leviathan — of Thomas Hobbes, and latterly of Carl Schmitt — is based in the 'war of all against all' instead of trust, and in a contract of self-determination instead of a covenant of mutual fidelity.
THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIAL TRADITIONS
Roman Catholic political theology is most associated with themes and trajectories from various forms of Thomism.
Lutheran political theology is based on Luther's distinction of two separate kingdoms, associated with political quietism.
Reformed political theology tends to be more sceptical about sin than Catholic thought yet more optimistic about transformation and social activism than Lutheran thought.
Anglican political theology can be either very Catholic or more Reformed.
Anabaptist political theology emphasizes separation of church and state, complete renunciation of violence, and absolute pacifism.
THE FIRST GENERATION: POLITICAL, LIBERATION AND PUBLIC THEOLOGIES
Political Theology emerged in Germany in the 1960s, particularly in the work of Johann Baptist Metz, Jürgen Moltmann and Dorothee Sölle. It arose due to several reasons:
— The continuing struggle of Germans to understand how Nazis perpetrated the Holocaust in a seemingly Christian nation.
— Certain historical inheritances, especially the transcendentalism of Heidegger, which seemed to remove faith from its historical and social moorings.
— The rise of Critical Theory.
Liberation Theology rose up from the grassroots of Latin America and took to the streets in political activism, while Political Theology was done by European academics in their libraries and studies.
Public Theology sought to find 'public' language and action through which to build societal consensus on moral issues.
If the enemy of Political Theology was impotent, bourgeois Christianity; and the enemies of Liberation Theology were poverty and oppression — then the enemies of Public Theology were sectarian Christianity and the loss of societal moral consensus.
The three streams of first-generation political theology shared in common a 'standard reading of the state and civil society, whereby those institutions are heralded as agents of freedom.'
THE SECOND GENERATION: POSTLIBERALISM, RADICAL ORTHODOXY AND 'CONTEXTUAL' THEOLOGIES
While the first generation can be broadly considered critical friends of modernity, in the second generation we find many more outright critics of modernity. Each second-generation stream has both inherited much from and substantively overturned one of the previous streams.
Postliberal Theology — mainly associated with American theologians — has called into question the ways in which Public Theology sought to take Christianity 'public,' instead of questioning modernity's public/private dualism. Prominent figures include Stanley Hauerwas, John Howard Yoder, and Oliver O'Donovan.
Radical Orthodoxy — a primarily Anglican and Catholic stream — follows Political Theology in its engagement with Continental philosophy but renounces its embrace of the modern secular state and its alignment of the kingdom of God with progressive politics. Central authors include John Milbank, Graham Ward, and Catherine Pickstock.
Contextual Theologies are not necessarily liberationist, but are efforts to do theology from within specific cultures outside Europe and America — including Womanist theology, Queer theology, and others.
"Political theology is, then, the analysis and criticism of political arrangements (including cultural-psychological, social and economic aspects) from the perspective of differing interpretations of God's ways with the world."
The political was always considered as one of the central concerns of Christian theology.
CHAPTER 1: THE EMERGENCE OF POLITICAL THEOLOGY
Some political theologians are particularly attentive to the scriptures containing works of political theology. The author discusses the case of John Howard Yoder, a Mennonite theologian with Anabaptist background, and Oliver O'Donovan, an Anglican.
Yoder articulated that Jesus is depicted as a political figure in the Bible, who preferred the prophetic/exilic vision of sojourning in opposition to the Davidic vision, thus redefining kingship.
"The cross and not the sword, suffering and not brute power determines the meaning of history. The world is not aware that Christ is sovereign, and the visible reign of Christ through the church does not look like sovereignty to the world because it is characterized by non-violence and servanthood."
Yoder believed that this transcendence of church was undermined by Constantinianism (referring to the Edict of Milan, that ended the Diocletian persecution of Christians and the subsequent marriage between Roman Empire and Christianity):
"The church had previously been a visible community ruled by Christ, while Christ's sovereignty over human history was an invisible hope awaiting the fullness of the kingdom to be established on earth, but in Constantinianism the true church became an invisible reality and the empire was understood as a visible sign of God's rule on earth."
Secular rulers (Roman) were now understood as God's particular servants and the church was reduced to a post of 'chaplaincy'. Yoder's interpretation of the political theology of the scriptures was counter-politics of the gathered, believing community of God's people — marked by visible faithfulness to God's sovereignty instead of grasping for political power, redefining politics through the cruciform shape of a church practicing non-violent servant leadership.
OLIVER O'DONOVAN
O'Donovan opposed Yoder in declaring the prophetic/exilic vision as normative. He argues that 'Jesus laid claim to the legacy of Davidic expectation in his great entry into Jerusalem.' He radically disagrees with Yoder when he argues that the church's 'essential nature as a governed society' — a political society governed by Christ — 'is hidden, to be discerned by faith as the ascended Christ who governs it is to be discerned by faith.' O'Donovan disagrees because he does not believe Christ's reign over all authorities is necessarily, or has been historically, hidden.
AUGUSTINE AND THE TWO CITIES
Augustine described two cities: the city of God and the earthly city. (Many have confused the two cities as representing 'church and state' — this is inaccurate.)
The city of God is created by love of God, founded in peace, and always ultimately orientated towards loving God.
The city of earth is created by self-love, founded in violence, and is orientated towards glorying in itself.
These two cities are interwoven and intermixed within and throughout human history. Only in the eschaton will the earthly city pass away and the city of God exist unmingled.
CHAPTER 2: APPROACHES TO POLITICAL THEOLOGY
Four ways of understanding variations between approaches to political theology:
(1) Theological understanding of creation, fall, human nature
(2) Approaches according to different theological traditions
(3) Three approaches in 20th Century (Political Theology, Public Theology and Liberation Theology)
(4) Second generation of these approaches
OPTIMISM VERSUS PESSIMISM — OR COVENANT VERSUS LEVIATHAN
Optimistic about human nature (Thomistic): Thomistic political theologies share Thomas's faith in the goodness of the created order and his conviction that God intends human government to contribute to human flourishing — what Thomas calls 'the common good.'
Pessimistic about human nature (Augustinian): Human government as it exists was not part of God's original intentions; rather it is a consequence of the fall, required for the restraint and limitation of the sinfulness of our interrelations.
In short: Augustine considers government a necessity due to the fall, while Aquinas considers it an inherent feature of God's created order and human nature.
COVENANT VERSUS LEVIATHAN
Jürgen Moltmann has described a related distinction in terms of 'covenant' and 'Leviathan':
Covenant — associated with Calvinist Federalism — holds that in the establishment of governments, humans enter into covenant with one another, related but subordinate to their covenant with God. This theory of government is based in trust: God's trust in human ability to form such a covenant, and trust of humans in one another.
Leviathan — of Thomas Hobbes, and latterly of Carl Schmitt — is based in the 'war of all against all' instead of trust, and in a contract of self-determination instead of a covenant of mutual fidelity.
THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIAL TRADITIONS
Roman Catholic political theology is most associated with themes and trajectories from various forms of Thomism.
Lutheran political theology is based on Luther's distinction of two separate kingdoms, associated with political quietism.
Reformed political theology tends to be more sceptical about sin than Catholic thought yet more optimistic about transformation and social activism than Lutheran thought.
Anglican political theology can be either very Catholic or more Reformed.
Anabaptist political theology emphasizes separation of church and state, complete renunciation of violence, and absolute pacifism.
THE FIRST GENERATION: POLITICAL, LIBERATION AND PUBLIC THEOLOGIES
Political Theology emerged in Germany in the 1960s, particularly in the work of Johann Baptist Metz, Jürgen Moltmann and Dorothee Sölle. It arose due to several reasons:
— The continuing struggle of Germans to understand how Nazis perpetrated the Holocaust in a seemingly Christian nation.
— Certain historical inheritances, especially the transcendentalism of Heidegger, which seemed to remove faith from its historical and social moorings.
— The rise of Critical Theory.
Liberation Theology rose up from the grassroots of Latin America and took to the streets in political activism, while Political Theology was done by European academics in their libraries and studies.
Public Theology sought to find 'public' language and action through which to build societal consensus on moral issues.
If the enemy of Political Theology was impotent, bourgeois Christianity; and the enemies of Liberation Theology were poverty and oppression — then the enemies of Public Theology were sectarian Christianity and the loss of societal moral consensus.
The three streams of first-generation political theology shared in common a 'standard reading of the state and civil society, whereby those institutions are heralded as agents of freedom.'
THE SECOND GENERATION: POSTLIBERALISM, RADICAL ORTHODOXY AND 'CONTEXTUAL' THEOLOGIES
While the first generation can be broadly considered critical friends of modernity, in the second generation we find many more outright critics of modernity. Each second-generation stream has both inherited much from and substantively overturned one of the previous streams.
Postliberal Theology — mainly associated with American theologians — has called into question the ways in which Public Theology sought to take Christianity 'public,' instead of questioning modernity's public/private dualism. Prominent figures include Stanley Hauerwas, John Howard Yoder, and Oliver O'Donovan.
Radical Orthodoxy — a primarily Anglican and Catholic stream — follows Political Theology in its engagement with Continental philosophy but renounces its embrace of the modern secular state and its alignment of the kingdom of God with progressive politics. Central authors include John Milbank, Graham Ward, and Catherine Pickstock.
Contextual Theologies are not necessarily liberationist, but are efforts to do theology from within specific cultures outside Europe and America — including Womanist theology, Queer theology, and others.
August 28, 2023
Una ineludible guía para quienes nos consideramos perplejos ante la emergencia de los liberacionistas, el evangelismo político, el opus dei y otras manifestaciones culturales de la posmodernidad. En este libro, la profesora Elizabeth Philips divide su investigación en dos partes. En la primera, se ocupa de definir la teología política, su emergencia y las aproximaciones de diversos autores. En la segunda parte, aborda asuntos específicos. En primer lugar, la posición institucional de la Iglesia respecto del Estado moderno. Luego, la figura de Jesús, el rol de la violencia y la paz, el debate entre liberales y demócratas. Los últimos dos capítulos fueron los más útiles para mi propia investigación: "Opresión, marginalización y Liberación", donde se analiza el surgimiento de las teologías liberacionistas. Finalmente, el capítulo ocho sobre la creación, la historia y la escatología, es el mejor logrado de todo el volumen.
July 26, 2017
Reading Political Theology
Great intro to this topic. Helpful analysis with depth of reference. Encouraged my to continue reading with its references. Highly recommended because of its clarity!
Great intro to this topic. Helpful analysis with depth of reference. Encouraged my to continue reading with its references. Highly recommended because of its clarity!
August 29, 2022
No doubt an interesting argument on the commodification of privatized Christianity. However, I have some pushback against the optimism vs. pessimism approach in one of the first sections of the book.
September 18, 2022
A helpful introduction, worth looking at. She’s doing a lot of synthesis and overview due to the nature of the series/project. If you know nothing about political theology, this helps you understand the conversations well.
November 23, 2023
Very good introduction and shows the different streams of political theology from Augustine to post modernism. This book with help those who are interested in political theology to get a solid foundation and gives examples for further study.
August 31, 2019
First rate for the purpose it sets out to accomplish - it's an excellent brief and basic guide to the field, with plenty of pointers for going deeper.
July 7, 2025
Short, sweet, and to the point. A very helpful survey.
October 1, 2021
This book was incredibly helpful for laying a foundation for understanding the different veins of political theology. Historical background, and really great contrasts of spectrums within the veins. It is a relatively short book, academic, but very readable. Phillips does a great job of staying somewhat unbiased, but there are some moments you can tell she favors certain theologians (which is reasonable). Highly recommend.
June 10, 2017
Phillips strength is clarity, and she exercises that strength throughout this helpful volume. Moving comfortably across a wide range of literature, both historically and methodologically, Phillips traces key conversations and issues in the field of Political Theology, all the while explicating the respective arguments and leveraging her own, keen critical voice. I count this book as essential for any student, researcher, or curious reader who seeks to responsibly and faithfully "think politics" theologically or "think theology" politically.
August 22, 2014
Essential reading for those interested in Political Theology. Perfect overview of history, movements, schools, and denominational variants. The book also discusses the important themes in the discipline such as state-church relationship, the use of violence, liberation from oppression, the normativity of Jesus' teaching, and the role of eschatology.
December 14, 2013
Fairly basic consideration of the topic.
November 8, 2015
Helpful overview of the field. Overly simplistic at points, but a handy reference to guide further reading.
November 30, 2016
This book was very readable and informative, providing a variety of perspectives on the matter. A solid introduction to political theology.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews