Why I Went Cold Turkey on Political Theology

Why I Went Cold Turkey on Political Theology

By Alastair Roberts

https://t.co/tjWwTic3F4

In my early twenties, I became obsessed with a belligerent form of the
political theology of the Theonomic Reconstructionist movement.
Arguing from the basis of the universal Lordship of Christ and the
dominion granted to humanity in the original creation, this view took
scripture – most notably the Old Testament law – as a blueprint for a
complete reconstruction of our entire social, legal, and political
order. It insisted on the necessity of a direct scriptural mandate for
such order and presented its theology as the answer to this need.
Largely on account of the influence of the Austrian School of
economics upon some of the principal advocates of the position, this
vision – in a surprising twist! – actually cashed out in something
like anarcho-capitalism with extensive application of the death
penalty.

The leaders of the movement were scrappy, smart, interesting,
assertive, and produced books, newsletters, journals, and articles at
a rate of knots. I voraciously consumed all their material. They wrote
so much that it soon represented almost all my reading. Their vision
of a Christian faith with bearing upon all life and society led them
to write provocative works on history, social order, law,
ecclesiology, the family, business, economics, and a host of different
areas. For a thumotic young man with extensive areas of interest,
their radical, expansive, and heterodox vision held considerable
appeal, as did the pugnacious and iconoclastic manner in which they
advanced it against more established thinkers.

Being familiar with the theological arguments for my position, and
knowing the letter of the Bible very well, I was adept at using
scripture to defend my positions and didn’t have trouble getting the
best of many of my interlocutors, few of whom had given serious
thought to the issues. Indeed, few things were more likely to
strengthen my sense of the rightness of my stances than arguing with
opponents. Spirited disagreements with adversaries can be curiously
effective at heightening such confidence: the more focused one is upon
the flaws in opposing positions, the less attentive one is likely to
be to the issues with one’s own.

The movement was weird and unbalanced in ways that I did not initially
appreciate and fueled some very unsavory fringes. As a contentious,
unruly, and fractious movement, rebellious towards many authorities,
revisionary in much of its history, unorthodox in its politics and
economics, and with an appetite for antagonism, tribalism, and
provocation, it offered many ways for people to go off the rails into
an array of forms of extremism. Many, especially in the run-up to Y2K,
were stockpiling guns, supplies, and moving to more secure locations,
preparing for a radical collapse of society, after which they hoped to
rebuild along their ideological lines. Others went in the direction of
Southern heritage and white identitarian movements. In the most
extreme cases, its militant ethos led some to support and engage in
anti-abortion terrorism.

Read it all here:
<https://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/discipleship/why-i-went-cold-turkey-on-political-theology>


-- 
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web:  http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk