Christian Politics Research Articles

The Formosan Christians for Self-Determination Movement: a Case Study of Overseas Taiwanese Christian Political Activism in the 1970s

The Formosan Christians for Self-Determination Movement: a Case Study of Overseas Taiwanese Christian Political Activism in the 1970s

Tom Wright and Michael F. Bird, Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies

Tom Wright and Michael F. Bird, <i>Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies</i>

Revisiting Maritain in the Present Context—A Response to Gilbrian Stoy, Travis Knoll, and Brian Boyd

In this article, William Cavanaugh responds to Brian Boyd’s critique of Cavanaugh’s use of Jacques Maritain’s work in Cavanaugh’s book Torture and Eucharist. The article reassesses Maritain’s views on the state, the church, and the laity in light of Boyd’s analysis, which accepts Cavanaugh’s critique of Maritain on the state but rebuts aspects of Cavanaugh’s critique of Maritain’s views on the church and the laity. Cavanaugh accepts some of Boyd’s rebuttals, such as his defense of Maritain’s views on the formation of laity and the temporal authority of bishops, but Cavanaugh pushes back on others, such as Maritain’s views on the relationship of ends to means and eternity to time. After discussing the differences among Maritain’s context, the context of Pinochet’s Chile, and the present context of the church in Latin America and Europe, Cavanaugh argues for a different form of Christian politics that rises from the grassroots rather than tries to sway elites.

The Church Renewal Movement in Ukraine: Based on the Materials of the Kharkiv “Tserkovna Hazeta” (1906)

The article describes the church renewal movement, the emergence of which Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century was a fully natural phenomenon due to the formation of initial liberal processes in society generally caused by the revolution of 1905–1907. It is shown that, not being national-liberation movement, the renewal movement was ideologically based in many respects on the principles of the functioning of the old Orthodox Church in Ukraine (Kyiv Metropolis), which was absorbed by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1686. The move was, in particular, about the independence of the church from the state, canon law, freedom of religion. As evidenced by the materials of the “Tserkovna Hazeta” (“Church Newspaper”), Kharkiv renewalists advocated the need for intra-church reforms in close connection with reforms of a general social nature. Among them were the following: shortening the working day and improving the working conditions of workers, overcoming the lack of land owned by peasants, granting civil rights and freedoms to all categories of the population, banning the death penalty. Rejecting the course of complete separation of the state from the church, the renewalists professed their harmony, the goal of which was declared to be the formation of a “Christian public”, and the means of its creation was to be non-violent “Christian politics”. The short-term existence of the church renewal movement is interpreted first due to the narrow social base of renewal at that time, and second to be a proof of the imperial Russian state’s inadmissibility of any forms of ecclesiastical and generally social liberal ideology.

Criticism of the Criticism of Islam and the West in the Philosophical Thought of Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov

The philosophy of cosmism traces its origins back to the philosophical traditions of Ancient Greece. The philosophy of cosmism encompasses various dimensions, including religious-philosophical, mystical, artistic, aesthetic, and scientific aspects. Within this philosophical framework, the concepts pertaining to human beings and mankind are interconnected, forming a cohesive community. The term “Cosmism” originates from the Greek term (κόσμος) "kosmos," which refers to a harmoniously organized world. The earliest views on this subject are found in Hesiod's Theogonia (The Birth of the Gods). The conception of the universe in the texts of ancient Greek thought was shaped by questioning the relationship between the phenomenon and the noumena realm within the framework of the archaea problem. It is possible to see how Plato and Aristotle constructed these metaphysical relations in their cosmology. The cosmological knowledge of medieval philosophy also exhibits the impact of Greek cosmology. Ptolemy systematically addresses Greek cosmology. During the 16th century, significant advancements were made in cosmology, encompassing a wide range of concepts and hypotheses. The scientific discoveries and theories of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton not only presented a scientific viewpoint but also prompted inquiries regarding humanity's position and significance within the context of history and intellectual development. Russian Cosmism emerged relatively late in global philosophy, specifically around the mid-19th century. According to Solovyov, the human mind, which serves as the guiding force in the functioning of the world, is engaged in a perpetual struggle against the primordial state of disorder and confusion. He asserted that this world's spirit and nature had a covert agreement. The mind (logos) is responsible for creating this magnificent existence within the realm. The process called “Creation” encompasses two interconnected objectives, general and particular in nature. The general purpose is the embodiment of an actual idea, i.e., light and life in various forms of natural beauty; however, the special purpose is the creation of man, i.e., the most incredible physical beauty also represents the highest inner potential of light and life. Solovyov calls this phenomenon as self-consciousness. Solovyov contends, by highlighting this beautiful creation of man, that man is no longer merely a participant in the action of cosmic principles but also a being capable of understanding the purpose of this action and, as a result, working meaningfully and freely toward its accomplishment. Solovyov analyzed Islamic issues from different angles in his Works titled The Three Forces, Philosophical Principles of Holistic Knowledge, and other works such as Christian Politics and the History and Future of Theocracy, Muhammad, Her Life, and Religious Teachings. As a religious philosopher, Solovyov's aim in addressing these issues was to try to solve the problems of Christian thought within the framework of the philosophy of cosmism he developed. The main aim of this article is to examine Solovyov's thoughts on the position of man in Islam and Western Christianity and the shortcomings of his criticisms on this subject. In this article, Solovyov's thoughts on the place of man in Islam and Western Christianity and some of the shortcomings of his critical views are analyzed. Solovyov's criticisms of the Western Church and its adverse effects on the development of the individual's free personality were investigated. The methodological ties of the ontological structure of Solovyov's theories of 'God,' 'Spirit,' 'Soul,' and 'Sophia' with ancient and Western philosophy are emphasized. As a result, it has been determined that Solovyov's criticism of Islam and the West is approached from the perspective of his own beliefs and that his thoughts have excessive subjective interpretation.

The Dialectic of Christian Politics

This article suggests that the problem of Christianity’s involvement in the world of politics may be described as taking the form of a dialectic of Christian politics. This means that while the transcendent essence of Christianity is apolitical, the presence of the Christian message in the immanent world always brings with it political consequences and makes Christendom a part of political life. The dialectic is presented with reference to the thought of two key contemporary Christian thinkers: Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) and Jacques Maritain (1882-1973). Both recognized the dialectical tension inherent in Christianity, but each found a different solution to this problem: whereas Kierkegaard denies Christianity any possibility of political involvement, Maritain concludes that such involvement is necessary for proper Christian existence in the world. The goal of this article is to uncover, on the basis of their considerations, a third, positive solution to the dialectic of Christian politics—a model that would demonstrate how the elements of the Christian ideal (transcendence) could be transferred to the temporal world (immanence), morally improving the latter without becoming falsified in it.

The Digital Public Square: Christian Ethics in a Technological Society

The Digital Public Square: Christian Ethics in a Technological Society

Journey to Pragmatism: The History of the American Religious Right in the ‘90s

The article analyses the political history of the American Religious Right in the nineties. It will be argued that conservative Christian political organizations achieved greater influence on partisan and national agenda by undergoing a pragmatic turn in structure, rhetoric and strategies. The uncompromising behavior of the eighties gave way to a gradual approach with a give-and-take logic. The article will pay attention to abortion as perhaps the most pressing issue at the time among conservative Christians. For its analysis the article relies on contributions published on Christianity Today, the flagship magazine of American Evangelicalism.

Archival Heritage of Solovyov V.S. in Russia: Analytical Review

The study is devoted to the study of actual state of the archival materials of V.S. Solovyov which are held in different funds of Russia. During the working process was carried out the analysis of Solovyov’s related materials in a number of archives of Moscow and St. Petersburg. In the context of this topic, documents from such archive funds as: RGALI, GARF, TsAGM, OR RSL (Moscow), OR RNL, IRLI RAS, RGIA (St. Petersburg) were reviewed. Particular attention was paid to the 1880s as the least researched period of philosopher’s work in his biography due to the insufficient availability of sources and to the restrictions of spiritual censorship in connection with the church-political content of Solovyov’s works of this period (“The Great Debate and Christian Politics”, 1883; “The History and Future of Theocracy”, 1887, etc.). In this regard, special attention was paid to the Solovyov funds in such archives as RGALI (F. 446) and OR RNB (F. 718). In the course of the study, many storage units were identified containing unsorted, draft materials, notebooks and notes of the philosopher, which need to be systematized and studied. The work carried out allows us to establish the scale and determine the priority areas of current research on the creative biography and philosophy of V.S. Solovyov based on the study of primary sources in the archives of Russia.

Christian Nationalism and the Project of Christian Political Theory: A Review Essay of The Case for Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolfe

Abstract This review essay examines Stephen Wolfe’s The Case for Christian Nationalism, focusing on his presentation of his book as a work of Christian political theory. His claims regarding national will and agency are analyzed, and problems with them are traced to his political theology and his methodological assumptions about Christian political theory. In place of those assumptions, Kuyper’s idea of architectonic critique is recommended as a more fruitful approach to Christian political theory in the Reformed tradition.

Are Christian politics possible? A Kierkegaardian perspective

AbstractThis paper provides a rereading of Søren Kierkegaard's attack upon Christendom in light of his theory of spheres of existence to examine whether Christian politics are possible after Kierkegaard. Talking of Christian politics makes sense only in the esthetic and the religious spheres of existence. However, Kierkegaard argues that politics worthy of the title Christian are impossible. Either such politics are simply Christendom far removed from New Testament Christianity, or Christian politics are faced with the paradox of existing before God and cannot proceed.

Converting Byron in Victorian Devotional Poetry Collections

This essay examines the variety of religious remediations of Byron’s poetry in the Victorian period, arguing that the poet’s specialized inclusion in Victorian devotional poetry anthologies signals the logic and politics of evangelical Christianity. Carefully anthologized selections of Childe Harolde’s Pilgrimage and Hebrew Melodies in devotional poetry collections like The Pious Minstrel (1831), Beauties of Modern Sacred Poetry (1862), and The Sunday Book of Poetry (1864) allowed publishers, editors, and readers to claim Byron as either a converted, saved Christian poet or as a lost soul who occasionally expressed the pious insights of someone on the brink of conversion. Byron’s posthumous reception in Victorian evangelical discourse is an understudied phenomenon that parallels other forms of Victorian Byromania that attempt to “convert” the poet and his works. I argue that the remediation and circulation of Byron’s anthologized devotional poetry offers insights into Victorian conceptions of Christian living, prayer, devotion, and piety.

From the Editor

From the Editor Andy Cain This special issue, "Shaping Christian Politics in Late Antiquity," which has been curated by Richard Flower, Meaghan McEvoy, and Robin Whelan, collects seven revised and peer-reviewed papers originally delivered at a conference hosted in June 2019 at the University of Liverpool. As detailed in this issue's Introduction, these superb studies develop innovative approaches to a series of problems relating to Christian politics during Late Antiquity. As a collective, they thus epitomize this journal's robust tradition of showcasing cutting-edge, methodologically sophisticated work by everyone from early-career researchers to more established scholars. This issue also is my tenth and final one as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Late Antiquity. Beginning in January 2023, the chief editorship will be assumed by Professor Sabine Huebner of the University of Basel, who has contributed substantially to the journal's mission as both an author and Review Editor. As of January 1, all article submissions and correspondence should be sent to her at sabine.huebner@unibas.ch. Since the beginning of my five-year term, JLA has published 84 articles which have derived from a total of 235 submissions, with an average acceptance rate of 35.7%. These manuscripts were sent by 164 male and 71 female authors, making the submission population 70% male and 30% female. Of the articles published or accepted, 48 were by male and 36 by female authors, yielding a gender rate of acceptance of 57% male and 43% female. The journal has also published three special issues during my tenure:13.1 "The Muses and Leisure in Sidonius Apollinaris"; 14.1 "Envisioning the Roman Emperor in Speech and Word in Late Antiquity"; and the current issue, 15.2 "Shaping Christian Politics in Late Antiquity." Because most of the papers submitted with these issues' original dossiers were accepted, they artificially inflate the perceived acceptance rate of JLA relative to the rate from open submission. Open and unsolicited submissions to JLA numbered 212, of which 61 were published, bringing the actual acceptance rate from open submission to 28.7%. During its first ten years (2008–17), this journal rapidly became a premier international venue for late antique studies, thanks in no small part to the herculean labors and outstanding stewardship of both Ralph Mathisen (JLA's founding editor) and Noel Lenski. As a marker of its standing within the broader field, JLA has been honored with an impressive number of awards through the years, including most recently in 2019, under my editorship, the prestigious Codex Award, which is bestowed once per year by the Council of [End Page 323] Editors of Learned Journals in recognition of excellence in a journal that covers any subject before 1500 (JLA previously had garnered this award in 2013). JLA's core mission since its founding fifteen years ago is to provide comprehensive, multi-disciplinary coverage of Late Antiquity in all of its topical dimensions: society, culture, politics, religion, literature, art, etc. The past ten issues, like the twenty that preceded them, exemplify this "big tent" approach to the late antique world, and they mirror well the diversified interests of our ever-evolving field. The specialized studies featured in their pages make significant advances in their target research, often formulating novel solutions to long-vexing problems or newly-identified conundra. They represent a rich variety of subdisciplines—from papyrology, epigraphy, textual criticism, numismatics, and archaeology, to the history of society, politics, economics, literature, law, religion, medicine, art, and the environment. They engage critically with written sources that reflect the colorful linguistic palette of the late antique Mediterranean region (Coptic, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, etc.), and they transport us to Africa, the Middle East, the British Isles, Gaul, Hispania, Germania, Italy, the Balkans, and many other locales. Reflecting back on the past half-decade, I am very proud of all of JLA's accomplishments, especially as we forged ahead in the face of a global pandemic which upended life as we all had known it. I am as acutely aware as ever that JLA has flourished, and will continue to flourish, thanks to a corporate effort, and so it is only fitting that I close my...

ON THE INTERACTION OF EURO PARTIES WITH PARTIES FROM THE EASTERN PARTNERSHIP COUNTRIES. PART 5

The article analyzes the cooperation of three pan-European political organizations – the Party of the European Left (PEL), the European Free Alliance (EFA) and the European Christian Political Movement (ECPD) – with their partners in the countries participating in the Eastern Partnership program (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine). All these European parties, since 2014, have sought to establish cooperation with ideologically close parties from these countries and even accepted them into their ranks as full members. The profiles of these organizations and their leaders, the results of participation in national parliamentary, presidential and local elections, interaction with other political forces of their countries on the formation of electoral and ruling coalitions were studied. The main provisions of their program documents, which reflect the pro-European choice, as well as press releases and statements by the leaders of the PEL, the EFA and the ECPM, concerning the situation in the countries participating in the Eastern Partnership, are given. It is shown that all three European parties supported this program and their partners, regardless of their electoral results. It is noted that in Belarus and Moldova, the local PEL member parties, and in Ukraine, the ECPM member party initially achieved good results in national and local elections, but in recent years most of them have found themselves on the political periphery. The reasons for this phenomenon vary from country to country. Nevertheless, European leftists, Regionalists and Christian Democrats are confident that as the situation stabilizes, issues of social justice, strengthening sovereignty and preserving traditional values will return to the political agenda and become in demand again. It was noted that two more European parties, Identity and Democracy and the European Democratic Party, which have official registration in the EU, currently have no ties with parties from the Eastern Partnership member countries.

Climate Emergency as Revelation: The Tragedy and Illusion of Sovereignty in Christian Political Theologies

In this article, the realities of the climate emergency reveal that human beings, especially those of us in the grips of capitalism, imperialism, and nationalism, have little control over nature and we are inextricably a part of nature. This revelation further exposes the tragedy and illusions of sovereignty, which is produced and maintained, in part, by Judeo-Christian scriptures and political theologies. While this revelatory event is disruptive, it also invites us to reimagine political theologies without the belief that sovereignty is existentially or ontologically necessary for political belonging. This includes embracing the revelation of the infinite, non-privileging care of a non-sovereign God for all creation.

The Holy Spirit and Ecclesiological Political Theology

In this paper, I will argue that a Christian Political Theology is mostly to be found in the concepts of the Church and in the performance of the Holy Spirit by examining the works of Erik Peterson and Yves Congar. For both theologians, the political dimension of ecclesiology is grounded on the action of the Holy Spirit, especially considering the birth of the Church in Pentecost, and the pneumatological nature of the sacraments. Although Political Theology focused mainly on the persons of the Father and the Son, I aim at showing how a Christian Political Theology is ultimately grounded on the conceptual transferences between the political and the theological that the Holy Spirit makes possible through the Church: if there is a Christian Political Theology, it is essentially ecclesiological and pneumatological.

A Thorn in Imperial Japan's Side: The Shifting Politics of Protestant Christianity in Colonial Korea

Historians have highlighted the deep connection between imperial ideologies and Christian evangelism that undergirded Western colonialism. This intimate relationship between church and state was far more complicated in colonial Korea because Japan maintained non‐Christian religious traditions, yet Japanese colonial authorities still needed the collaboration of Korean Protestant communities to meet the material and ideological demands of Japan's imperial enterprise. This article examines how Western missionaries and Korean evangelicals engaged with colonial rule — that engagement reflected the fluid nature of religious culture in colonial Korea and changed as imperial Japan faced internal and external challenges. Initially, many Protestant churches remained politically neutral to appease the Japanese regime but some supported anti‐Japanese activities, prompting the Government‐General of Korea (GGK) to try to prevent Protestant churches from becoming loci for rebellion against its rule. The GGK switched from “military rule” to a less harsh “cultural rule” in the 1920s, which motivated Protestants to adopt an uneasy coexistence with colonial authorities. In the 1930s–1940s, the GGK hardened its stance on religion and insisted on peninsula‐wide observance of State Shintō; some Protestants acquiesced to the authorities, but others bravely refused to worship Shintō deities, a ritual that contravened Christian strictures against idolatry.

Revenge Is a Genre Best Served Old: Apocalypse in Christian Right Literature and Politics

Apocalypse is a phenomenology of disorder that entails a range of religious affects and experiences largely outside normative expectations of benevolent religion. Vindication, judgment, revenge, resentment, righteous hatred of one’s enemies, the wish for their imminent destruction, theological certainty, the triumphant display of right authority, right judgement, and just punishment—these are the primary affects. As a literary genre and a worldview, apocalypse characterizes both the most famous example of evangelical fiction—the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins—and the U.S. Christian Right’s politics. This article’s methodological contribution is to return us to the beginnings of apocalypse in Biblical and parabiblical literature to better understand the questions of theodicy that Left Behind renews in unexpected ways. Conservative white Christians use apocalypse to articulate their experience as God’s chosen but persecuted people in a diversely populated cosmos, wherein their political foes are the enemies of God. However strange the supersessionist appropriation, apocalypse shapes their understanding of why God lets them suffer so—and may also signal an underlying fear about the power and attention of their deity.

The politics of Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity: Religious language, charismatic authority, and temporality in a Melanesian revival movement

ABSTRACT Through an analysis of a series of revival movements that erupted across the Melanesian island of Malaita in the 1970s, this article articulates a strongly political reading of Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity (P/c). A series of charismatic eruptions that swept Malaita in 1970 effected an overhaul of the epistemological, organizational, and eschatological frameworks imposed upon local Christians by foreign missionaries. Such rapid profusions of charismatic activity reveal how P/c experientialism undercuts the laborious textualism of conservative evangelical Christianity, how the democratization of charisma challenges hierarchical mission religious authority and, most broadly, how the dramatic shift to messianic eschatology constructs a qualitatively different metahistorical narrative to that imposed by the colonial project.

John Corrigan, Religious Tolerance, America, and the World: A History of Forgetting and Remembering

Reviewed by: Religious Tolerance, America, and the World: A History of Forgetting and Remembering by John Corrigan Jeffrey I. Israel John Corrigan, Religious Tolerance, America, and the World: A History of Forgetting and Remembering (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020) John Corrigan’s Religious Tolerance, America, and the World addresses a fascinating and important question about Protestant Christian politics in the United States: How have Protestants managed the dissonance between Christian violence in American history and the cherished myth of the United States as a paragon of “religious tolerance”? In order to preserve this myth, Corrigan argues, American Protestants have repressed the trauma of their own historical participation in Christian violence and projected the intensity generated by this repression abroad. Such projection is evident, Corrigan claims, in foreign policy initiatives ostensibly intended to fight religious intolerance in other countries. Corrigan is most persuasive where he identifies related dynamics at work among twenty-first century evangelical Christians in the US. Many evangelicals today are passionate advocates on behalf of persecuted Christians abroad. Corrigan suggests that this advocacy is integrally related to the sense among some American Protestants that they too are persecuted Christians, now living in a secular America that has abandoned its once cherished ideal of religious tolerance. Religious Tolerance, America, and the World invites readers to appreciate the irony of this sense of persecution and loss, given that Protestant Christians have been responsible for so much persecution and intolerance in US history. [End Page 124] Corrigan covers a broad span of history with erudite, masterfully crafted chapters on early America, the antebellum period, the later nineteenth century, the Cold War, and the twenty-first century. Each chapter presents a rich world of intra-Protestant debates about the meaning of violence and persecution at home and abroad. Each is well worth reading as a window into particular moments of Protestant Christian political activism in the United States. However, while each chapter can serve independently as a thought-provoking historical vignette, I find the overarching argument meant to tie these vignettes together less compelling. The problem starts with the idea of “religious intolerance.” Corrigan relies on this idea in order to tell a single story over the many centuries of US history that he covers. Each historical vignette featured in the book is meant to represent a case of religious intolerance, or the repression of memories of religious intolerance, or the projection of the idea of religious intolerance abroad. Insofar as each case is a case of the same thing (i.e., religious intolerance or the repression of its memory), Corrigan can connect them into a chain of repressed collective memories of religious intolerance transmitted from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first. What is more, for the overarching argument to work, each case must be a case for a singular collective that maintains sufficient continuity over this span of time. In the argument of the book, this is “America,” understood as a nation. Unfortunately, by insisting that his cases cohere as a very general story about the collective memory of “religious intolerance” repressed by the “American nation,” while in fact telling a very particular story in which Protestant Christians are the clear protagonists, Corrigan reinforces the idea that America is essentially the Christian nation that his Christian protagonists so often take it to be. This is jarring in a book that calls so forcefully for Protestant Christians in America to confront a repressed history of intolerance. Likewise, Corrigan misses an opportunity to show how categories like “religious intolerance,” “religious freedom,” and “religious liberty” emerge as distinctively meaningful at different times and places in US history as a product of Christian political discourses, designed to serve particular Christian political interests. By writing, instead, as though these ideas have a clear, stable, and generically “religious” meaning across US history, Corrigan reinforces the project of Christian activists who operate under the cover of a disingenuously general idea of “religious freedom,” which is in fact contrived precisely to promote particular Christian interests. These problems could have been avoided. Corrigan recognizes the historical and theological embeddedness of “religious freedom” as it has been deployed in the United States. And he is familiar with recent scholarship...