JESUS AND THE POWERS:
Christian political witness in an age
of totalitarian terror and dysfunctional
democracies
By Tom Wright and Michael F. Bird
SPCK. 185 pages. £12.99
ISBN 973 0 231 090 075
Tom Wright is not everyone’s cup of tea. Yet this book co-authored with Michael Bird, with whom he co-wrote a magnificent New Testament introduction, is a valuable and timely contribution to the literature on how we live in our times.
Both Wright and Bird are distinguished New Testament scholars, both have produced fine commentaries on Romans which enrich their reflections on the decisive 13th chapter. This book was going through its pre-publication process when the attacks on Israel took place on 7 October 2023. The brief postscript on that incident and its immediate aftermath is a mini masterclass of measured Biblical reflection on complex contemporary events.
The book itself roots its thinking in Jesus’ announcement of the Kingdom of God in the shadow of empire. The book wrestles with the question of separation and involvement: ‘If you want to change the game you need skin in the game. The people who change history are those who make history. If you want to build for the kingdom, then you have to build something … you need to be in the room where it happens.’
Making use of Romans 13, the book considers the demands and limits of submission and subversion.
‘Civil disobedience need not be violent, only subversive, that is aiming to deter, disrupt or destroy the capacity of a civil authority to maintain or extend its exercise of unjust power.’
The book explores how the church can be a force for resistance today. The authors suggest that there should be resistance toward totalitarianism, Christian nationalism, and civic totalitarianism (‘… a progressive post-liberal order that does not value the right to dissent’). The authors insist that this is primarily to be a gospel-shaped resistance as the church seeks to be a city on a hill.
Finally, the book looks, with a nod to the historian Tom Holland the author of Dominion, to speak of how Christianity has shaped liberal democracy, and how liberal democracy has promoted justice and fairness. In this chapter the authors try to tease out what it means to have a political theology, asking the question: ‘Can there be Christian faithfulness in the public realm?’ They insist that this is possible and desirable: ‘Christian faith is meant to be a public faith, for the common good, which compels us to do good, to make good, and to build good in private and public endeavours.’
Yet they realistically review the challenges to such activity where Christian voices and influences are not welcomed. This requires Biblical wisdom and a nimbleness that can respond to rapidly changing challenges.
The book quotes Lee C. Camp: ‘The faith of the Christian is the last great hope on earth.’
Books like this can provide the confidence and the stimulus to be that arrow of hope and transformation. The authors describe what that means in practice: ‘The task is about trying to think and pray through the missional vocation and kingdom witness of the church in our contested political theatres. The church carries a gospel which is not reducible to this-worldly political activism, nor so heavenly minded as to live aloof from the trials and terrors of our time.’
Wright and Bird suggest that the 2020s appear to be the most precarious and perilous time in human history since the 1930s. Here is a book that provides a nuanced account of how Christians can live faithfully and wisely in these times.
