In the Days of Caesar: Pentecostalism and Political Theology

Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association, 2018

Pentecostalism has often been accused of being withdrawn from social and political concerns due to, amongst other things, a dual emphasis on personal salvation and individual discipleship. In this paper, I suggest that far from simply being an inwardly ecclesial occupation, the process of 'making disciples' is a political activity that impacts public life, that is the life of communities and nations. While some Pentecostals may be reluctant to see discipleship in political terms, I will argue that the history of the movement testifies to the work of the Spirit as being political. I will suggest that in Pentecostalism we see a political movement of the Spirit that opposes unjust structures within the church in order to usher in spiritual, social and political liberation for those beyond the church. I will consider the unique contributions Pentecostalism makes to political engagement through its development of conscious leaders and disciples from typically underprivileged communities. I will end with a reflection on facing conflict, particularly in the area of ethnic and cultural difference which continues to be a theological and political challenge for Pentecostals and churches more broadly.

Asia Journal of Pentecostal Studies, vol. 26.2, 2023

In The Politics of the Spirit, seventeen Pentecostal scholars engage a wide range of topics on what Pentecostal political theology has been in practice and its possibilities moving forward. This collection is divided into four main sections covering historical analysis, biblical and theological reflections and sociological/political engagement. Contributions include the perspectives of Black and Latino men and women. This collection will serve both ministers and scholars within and outside Pentecostalism in understanding the challenges and gifts of Pentecostal political engagement.

This essay argues that Christian political theology is in a state of confusion, in large part because while it is strong in theology it is weak in politics. In particular, it needs to engage more deeply with an analysis of politics qua politics, with secular political thought and with secular political history.

Journal For the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 2014

The present article aims to explore the complex relation between global and European Pentecostalism and politics. The self-evident scarcity of studies on this particular topic, despite the global prominence and the dynamic growth of Pentecostalism, and the tendency to collapse strikingly opposing tendencies under a generic terminology call for a serious examination of the approaches Pentecostalism adopts in relation to political involvement. Throughout the three main sections of this paper, political, historical, cultural and theological concepts will be employed in order to: firstly, provide a qualitative and quantitative overview of global Pentecostalism; secondly, explore worldwide different political preferences of Pentecostal churches and denominations that range from apolitism, to full-fledged political involvement, or to the preference for an alternative polis; thirdly, to analyse European Pentecostalism and the particularities of its relation with politics.

Journal of Law and Religion

Pneuma, 2023

Sotsiologicheskoe Obozrenie / Russian Sociological Review, 2022

Power and its sources have always been essential questions for political philosophy. One of the ways to legitimize power is political theology which was discussed at length during the XX century. The proposed paper considers Christian political theology as a project con- structed by Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben. Both thinkers defended their models and criticized their main “enemy”, Erik Peterson. While Schmitt believed in Christian legiti- mization for the status quo and Agamben dreamed of the coming community without an identity, Peterson argued that Christian doctrines (Trinity, Parousia, etc.) deem any political authority meaningless. A majority of researchers scrutinized and critically evaluated the level of theoretical arguments of the aforementioned thinkers. On the contrary, we have chosen to analyze all of the key and referenced theologians (Paul, Eusebius, Eunomius, Gregory of Nyssa, and Augustine) to prove that Schmitt-Agamben’s notion of Christian political the- ology is controversial. Like Peterson with Eusebius, Schmitt and Agamben employed loose translations in trying to integrate their ideas (sovereignty, absolute anarchy) into original Christian texts. The detailed analysis allows the paper to deliver a kind of negative conclusion that Christian political theology has no ground in the sources these thinkers have credited. Nevertheless, our research calls for a new round of discussion: was this critique caused by Christian sources selected inappropriately by Schmitt, Peterson, and Agamben, or by the essential incompatibility between Christianity and political theology? Polemics might get a new “positive” horizon with the help of this question. Keywords: κατέχον, Christian political theology, μοναρχία, felicitas, δύναμις, gloria, Roman Empire, civitas Dei

In the Christian Antiquity and later on during the Middle Ages, there was neither separation nor much distinction between the theological and the political matters. It was common that theological doctrines induced political philosophy and practice, and vice versa. Theological interpretations of the Incarnation as they developed during the Late Antiquity, had political extrapolations and correlated with the corresponding models of the church-state relations. There were three main Christological trends during the fifth-sixth centuries, which were connected with the names of the bishops in the most important cities of the Roman world: Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444), Leo of Rome (c. 400-461), and Nestorius of Constantinople (c. 386 – c. 450). These Christological trends correspond to the three models of the church-state relations, which were formed in the same period: the eastern Roman, the western Roman, and the Persian.

Over the last decades, the question of political theology has reemerged as a lens to interpret and understand the current global order, structures of governance, the moral question of normativity and theology's or religion's role in the public sphere. Several contributors to the debate presuppose an understanding of God or the Divine that many theologians would consider to be uncritical, if not ideological. In the current discourse, the Divine serves as the "ultimate" authority regarding normative claims, legitimacy of (political or biopolitical) power, 1 and divine power over history.