A must-read for Christians struggling with the present political conversation
Citizen helps Christians find our place in the politics of the world. In these pages, Bishop Andy Doyle offers a Christian virtue ethic grounded in fresh anthropology. He offers a vision of the individual Christian within the reign of God and the life of the broader community. He adds to the conversation in both church and culture by offering a renewed theological underpinning to the complex nature of Christianity in a post-modern world.
How did we get here? Is this the way it has to be? Are there implications for conversations about politics within the church? Doyle contends that our current debates are not about one partisan narrative winning, but communities of diversity being unified by a relationship with God's grand narrative. Crafting a deep theological conversation with a unified approach to the Old and New Testament, Citizen asks, what does it truly mean to live in community?
Charles Andrew Doyle (Andy) was elected bishop coadjutor of the Diocese of Texas on May 24, 2008 and was consecrated on November 22, 2008 at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, Houston. He was seated as the ninth Bishop of Texas on June 7, 2009 at Christ Church Cathedral, Houston, following the retirement of the Rt. Rev. Don Wimberly.
Born in 1966 in Carbondale, Illinois, and raised in Houston, Bishop Doyle served five years as Canon to the Ordinary prior to his election. Bishop Doyle holds a bachelor of fine arts from the University of North Texas and served at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School, Austin before receiving an M Div from Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon in 1995 and priest the following year. He served at Christ Church,Temple and St. Francis, College Station, Texas, prior to his appointment to the diocesan staff as Canon to the Ordinary in 2003.
Bishop Doyle is a gifted and experienced teacher and preacher, and has a particular interest in reaching younger generations in order to partner with older and experienced church members to share wisdom across generations, invigorating growth and membership. He has training and expertise in mediation as well as multicultural ministry. Bishop Doyle is bilingual and actively seeks to respond to an increasingly diverse population in the Diocese of Texas.
He believes reaching more and different audiences through electronic means will help build the body of Christ and regularly uses Twitter and FaceBook to have conversations with church members and those looking for a church home. He encourages innovative and grass roots efforts to plant new Episcopal communities.
A published author and accomplished painter, Doyle and his wife JoAnne have two daughters, Zoë, and Caisa.
This was an excellent book, one of the better ones I've read in a while that seeks to develop and present a healthy vision of Christian formation and action in the context of engaging in the public square. I liked Doyle's recurring notion that Christians are Christians first before they are citizens of the particular country (and time) in which they live, and that this has supra-political ramifications. His exploration of the underlying meaning (and subsequent distortion) of the concept of religious liberty as developed by the drafters of the Constitution was refreshing and enlightening, and his implicit critique of much of how Christian churchgoers (including many in his own denomination) approach their identity as Americans struck me as encouraging and prophetic. I regularly found myself wishing that there were more voices like his contributing to national dialogues in religion and politics around the pressing issues of our time, while also appreciating the difficulty of developing the energy and commitment to doing so in the face of so much entrenched resistance and inertia.
The author faithfully engages scripture and history in order to chart a path for faithful citizenship and charitable discourse. I really enjoyed Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind and this book takes the next step and applies those ideas to the life of the church and the daily life of the Christian citizen.