Re: Why I Went Cold Turkey on Political Theology

Hey Steve:  If theology has left you feeling cold, here's a *short* something 
that *may* warm you back up again:
https://tinyurl.com/itta-TCoU  (If you're fearful of links, let me know, and 
I'll copy / paste the short story into a post here for you, but it may be awhile 
before I circle back around to this group.)



"Steve Hayes" <[email protected]> wrote in message 
news:[email protected]...
>
> 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