A Christian Perspective on Political Thought

Abstract

Abstract Evangelical scholar Stephen Mott seeks to advance the role of biblical and theological values in the political lives of individual Christians and the public discourse of American society. Pointing to the research of Robert Bellah et al., Mott argues that Americans want to make choices in terms of a general standard of right and wrong, but tend to lack a sound objective foundation for such values. As Bellah has proposed, Christian biblical and theological tradition are important resources for the construction of such a much needed foundation. Mott’s endeavour is the formulation of a Christian political theory that can supply the norms essential to the informed evaluation of political choices. In contrast to recent Christian writings on politics that stress the social scientific evidence, Mott here draws primarily on theological and biblical sources. From this perspective he discusses such topics as power, human nature, the nature of group life, justics, government and time. Significant attention is also given to questions of property and freedom. Although deeply influenced by the writings of Reinhold Niebuhr, Mott brings a more biblical and evangelical perspective to the consideration of these issues. In the second part of the book Mott goes on to apply his normative theory to an evaluation of specific political ideologies, including traditional conservatism, liberalism, laissez-faire capitalism, Marxist socialism, socialism, and fascism.