How Theological is Political Theology? The Case of Twentieth-Century American Protestantism

How theological is political theology? Twentieth century American Protestantism illustrates that the answer depends on more than the extent to which a political theology is theological. For example, Walter Rauschenbusch and subsequent emancipatory political theologians understand theology's pol...

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Bibliographic Details
Subtitles:Roundtable: How Theological is Political Theology?
Main Author: Simmons, Frederick V. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group [2018]
In: Political theology
Year: 2018, Volume: 19, Issue: 8, Pages: 681-688
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B USA / Protestantism / Political theology / Theology / History 1900-2000
IxTheo Classification:CG Christianity and Politics
KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KBQ North America
KDD Protestant Church
Further subjects:B John Howard Yoder
B Reconciliation
B Practice
B Walter Rauschenbusch
B Justification
B Reinhold Niebuhr
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Description
Summary:How theological is political theology? Twentieth century American Protestantism illustrates that the answer depends on more than the extent to which a political theology is theological. For example, Walter Rauschenbusch and subsequent emancipatory political theologians understand theology's political significance very differently than John Howard Yoder and other political theologians influenced by the Radical Reformation. Nevertheless, both groups conceive the Christian gospel as a politics and so concur that Christian theology is essentially political. By contrast, Reinhold Niebuhr interpreted the gospel as disclosure of God's mercy and therefore denied that Christian theology is primarily a politics-for society or the church. Hence, although all three of these political theologies are thoroughly theological, they are not political in the same manner or for the same reasons. Accordingly, in addition to quantitative considerations, ascertaining theology's place in political theology involves discerning how a political theology is theological and why a theology is political.
Item Description:Das gedruckte Heft ist als Doppelheft erschienen: "Volume 19 Numbers 7-8 November-December 2018"
ISSN:1743-1719
Contains:Enthalten in: Political theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2018.1520825