The Political Meaning of Christianity: The Prophetic Stance: An Interpretation

Over the years I've frequently used Glenn Tinder's Political Thinking in my Social and Political Philosophy classes. Though evident to a discerning reader of that work, the somewhat muted Christian convictions of this MIT political science professor peal like church bells in The Political Meaning of Christianity: an Introduction (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, c. 1989). Tinder makes "a personal statement," one shaped "by the Bible and by Christian traditions" (p. 1). So it's a testament, a reflective work by a scholar who's devoted a lifetime to political thinking, one who argues that a generally solitary "prophetic stance" is the proper stance for Christians living in a forever fallen world. He focuses his reflections on five general themes: the exaltation of the individual; prophetic hope; liberty; social transformation; and prophetic spirituality. Given Christianity's first principle, agape love, "we come to the major premise of the prophetic stance and, indeed, of all Christian social and political thinking--the concept of the exalted individual" (p. 27). Created by God, designed in His image, we persons have a unique destiny. Our individual lives count for something! There's a bedrock equality of persons in God's family, so "no one is to be casually sacrificed" (p. 32). No one's excluded, for agape love reaches out to all peoples. Despite the individual's exalted status, of course, Christians recognize man's "fallen" predicament as well--a paradoxical but profoundly true reality. Sin flaws our royal lineage! It pervades that "worldliness" which handcuffs us to the realm at odds with God. It takes two paths. First, there's pride, the incessant drive to be gods. Second, when self-exaltation fails, we turn to diversions. Both approaches help us "avoid the conscious dependence on God that is faith" (p. 37). Craving independence for ourselves, claiming a la Nietzsche a "Man-god" status which repudiates the "God-man" revelation of Christ Jesus, various forms of "idealism," especially nationalism, encourage us to exalt and worship ourselves. "Dostoevsky wrote that 'a man cannot live without worshiping something.'" Whoever denies God kneels before idols--which are only occasionally hand¬crafted figures. Contemporary ideologies, movements, and messiahs routinely attain god-like standing in their followers' minds. All too often those who are most "proud of their criti¬cal and discerning spirit have rejected Christ and bowed down before Stalin, Mao, or some other secular savior" (p. 50). Without God, we slyly exalt ourselves and seek to fabricate the fantasies spawned by revolutionaries' dreams, thereby losing the true "exal¬tation of the individual" made possible for us in Christ. Yet in its current condition this "world is not a fitting home for the exalted individual" (p. 53). Designed for a better world, we desire a perfect community. Thus we need a biblically-based "prophetic hope" to s

Glenn Tinder's The Political Meaning of Christianity is what Reinhold Niebuhr might have written fifty years after The Nature and Destiny of Man (sic). Tinder gives us an astute analyis of the human condition, individually and socially, exalted through the destiny God gives us, and fallen through the exaltation we give ourselves. His chapters on "prophetic hope" as it works for social transformation and spirituality have little rival in current literature. This book, now sadly out of print, should be required reading for all theology students, no matter the degree of their specialization or education. John W. Riggs

Glen Tinder is probably best known for his seminal Atlantic article"Can We be Good Without God?". The Political Meaning of Christianityexplores many of these same ideas in greater detail, examining, for example, the importance of Love in the political system (a novel idea.) I strongly recommend this book for both Christians and non-Christians wrestling with the importance of the transcendant in our political system. Kris Childress