POLITICAL CHURCH
By Jonathan Leeman
IVP Apollos. 403 pages. £24.99
ISBN 978 1 783 594 160
The linkage of ‘Church’ with ‘Political’ in a book title may not be the kind of word association that sits well with evangelical readers. It suggests a church that is embroiled in the murky world of party politics. But this is not what this book seeks to promote. Instead it sets out to challenge key misper-ceptions of church that pervade the vast majority of churches today.
Jonathan Leeman states his twin goals as being, first,‘to replace the map of politics and religion that many Christians have been using since the democratic revolutions of the 18th century with a more biblical one’. And, second, ‘to explain where the local church fits onto this redrawn map as a political institution or embassy of Christ’s rule’. He explores both against the backdrop of post-Enlightenment individualism that has come to define the mindset of Western culture.
Public faith
He makes it clear from the outset that he is not presenting just another political ideology, but to argue that theology which is truly scriptural must also be political. It is something for public, not private, consumption and therefore leads not just to individual lives being reshaped, but to the transformation of the body politic as well. He justifies this proposition in part through an appeal to the revelation of God as Trinity in Scripture. He then links this to the centrality of covenant in God’s dealings both with the human race generally and with his redeemed people in particular.
The two opening chapters provide clear and detailed answers to the questions ‘What is Politics?’ and ‘What is an Institution?’ Both are foundational to the main thesis of the book.
The author goes on to develop his main theme in four lengthy and highly detailed chapters in which he deals with ‘The Politics of Creation’, ‘… the Fall’, ‘… the New Covenant’ and ‘… the Kingdom’. His argument is rooted in Scripture, but interacts helpfully with the history of interpretation as well as church history.
Kingdom keys
A key element in his consideration of this theme is the vexed question of ‘the keys of the kingdom’ – the authority bound up with the life and work of the church – which Jesus mentions in Matthew 16. Leeman deals with this from a Congregationalist perspective, but handles it with due respect for the views reflected in Episcopalian and Presbyterian polities. His overall objective in writing is catholic and not partisan.
This is a scholarly work addressing a key issue in the church’s self-understanding and sense of call. But it has far-reaching significance in terms of its practical implications. This is true especially in terms of how the church sees its place in the ‘public square’ and its duty to be engaged not merely for its own sake, but for the sake of the world.
It is a book that needs to be studied, discussed and implanted across the spectrum of churches seeking to be faithful to their biblical charter. It would be great if we could look forward to a distillation of its content with a wider readership in mind.
