Deity and Domination

by David Nicholls

`Religion and politics are necessarily related', declared Ronald Reagan, while addressing an ecumenical prayer breakfast of 17,000 people in Dallas. But how are they connected? Many popular images of God - King, Lord, and Judge - are essentially political, while concepts of might, majesty, dominion, and power are used of both God and the state.
This ambitious and original work explores the relations between these images and their political context through the analogy between divine and civil government, and considers what images of God may legitimately be employed by Christians in the twentieth century. David Nicholls suggests that religious conceptions have often affected political thinking - theological rhetoric, child of political experience, may also be mother of political change.
Drawing upon politics, theology, history, sociology, anthropology, and literary criticism, this important new book will be essential reading for all concerned with the relation between Christianity and politics.

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 3, 1989

About the author

Reverend David Gwyn Nicholls, DLitt (Oxon)

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ni...

Reviews

[Juan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great overview of how theology, ie how we view God, and how we view government influenced each other. I just wished that Nicholls gave us more of his view and more importantly a vision of government that best relfects the Triune God of Scripture. He appears to have viewed anarchism favorably. He questioned the "myth" of representative government and the "common" interest of the people. He viewed the power of local communities being empowered as the best form of governance and saw centrailzed government as inherently inimical to this idea. Great book for anyone interested in God and government.