Gabriella Siefert’s Reviews > The Liturgy of Politics > Status Update

Likewise, the church doesn’t have jurisdiction over legislative matters, its actions are politically significant.

These limitations create room for neutrality without declaring one institution completely uninterested in the activities of the other, and vice versa. The church and state are limited in their authority, but that doesn’t mean that either are politically or spiritually neutral. The state doesn’t have jurisdiction over worship and theological convictions, but its actions are theologically significant;

Understanding the church as an institution helps us think about its jurisdictional limitations. It is one institution ordained by God, and government is another. Where we draw that line is complicated, but understanding each institution as both ordained by God and limited in its authority is a helpful place to start.

But just as God created humans for cultural and social life, he created them for political life as well. The meaning of that word political is important. It can signify statecraft - the exercise of coercive power for the sake of ordered governance. However, it also has broader meaning. It signifies the means by which we shape our common life together.

[The church] cannot have an inner life without having at the same time a life which expresses itself outwardly as well. She cannot hear her Lord and not hear the groaning of the Creation. - Karl Barth

But for Christians, politics is not important because we ascribe great value to political ideas, but because we ascribe great value to the human person.