Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies

by N. T. Wright, Michael F. Bird

Overview

An urgent call for Christians everywhere to explore the nature of the kingdom amid the political upheaval of our day.

Should Christians be politically withdrawn, avoiding participation in politics to maintain their prophetic voice and to keep from being used as political pawns? Or should Christians be actively involved, seeking to utilize political systems to control the levers of power?

In Jesus and the Powers, N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird call Christians everywhere to discern the nature of Christian witness in fractured political environments. In an age of ascending autocracies, in a time of fear and fragmentation, amid carnage and crises, Jesus is king, and Jesus’s kingdom remains the object of the church's witness and work.

Part political theology, part biblical overview, and part church history, this book argues that building for Jesus's kingdom requires confronting empire in all its forms. This approach should orient Christians toward a form of political engagement that contributes to free democratic societies and vigorously opposes political schemes based on autocracy and nationalism. Throughout, Wright and Bird reflect on the relevance of this kingdom-oriented approach to current events, including the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the China-Taiwan tension, political turmoil in the USA, UK, and Australia, and the problem of Christian nationalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310162247
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	03/26/2024
Pages:	208
Sales rank:	53,930
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

N. T. Wright is the former bishop of Durham and senior research fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University. He is one of the world's leading New Testament scholars and the award-winning author of many books, including?After You Believe, Surprised by Hope, Simply Christian, Interpreting Paul, and The New Testament in Its World, as well as the Christian Origins and the Question of God series.

Michael F. Bird is Deputy Principal and Lecturer in New Testament at Ridley College, Australia. He is the author of numerous scholarly and popular books on the New Testament and theology, including, with N. T. Wright, The New Testament in Its World (2019).

Editorial Reviews

'In our unsettled and polarized world, it is as easy to be tempted by the solutions offered by those on the extremes as it is to put our heads in the sand. Bird and Wright remind Christians that Jesus truly is king and the hope of the world, and they encourage us toward steady faithfulness when it is easy to be swept away by the shifting winds of historical and political circumstance. Read this book, remember 'the old story,' and pursue public faithfulness while resting in truth.'

VINCENT BACOTE

'In a time when Christians face pressure to either remain silent about God's kingdom or conquer their opponents in its name, Wright and Bird call the church to choose neither. Christians have a vital role to play in politics at all levels of government. Yet as Wright and Bird explain, those who bear the name 'Christian' represent Jesus in their service and sacrifice, boldly speaking truth to power when necessary, neither in dominating their neighbors nor capitulating to evil. Can Christians defend pluralism and liberal democracy and remain faithful to King Jesus? Not only is it possible, Wright and Bird explain why they must.'

SAMUEL L. PERRY

'In Jesus and the Powers, N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird draw on a wide array of historical, biblical, and theological resources to offer a much-needed contribution to discussions regarding Christian faith and politics. They present a broad theopolitical vision of how the church should relate to empire that will exhort, challenge, correct—and at times likely provoke—their readers. Their arguments reach an international audience and transcend the particularities of contemporary politics to point readers back to the heart of Christian life and witness: serving Jesus our king and advancing the kingdom of God.'

AMY E. BLACK

'Wright and Bird help us situate where the church sits between presidents and principalities. Keeping politics out of Christianity is impossible, for Christianity is inherently political. Too many books on politics shortchange the biblical text. This book brings you back to the first century and then back again to the twenty-first century with tools pertaining to our public witness.'

PATRICK SCHREINER

'Tom Wright and Michael Bird's individual contributions to New Testament scholarship, church life, and practical Christian living are immeasurable. This dynamic duo teams up again to draw attention to the relevance of Jesus and the Bible for our divided and fracturing world. Unthinkable only a decade ago, the very fabric of democracy is under threat. What was once stable and reliable is now in danger of collapse. Although this may be new to us today, it is not new to God's people. In some ways, topics and emphases in Scripture that were important for the earliest church are now relevant again. Wright and Bird help us reorient ourselves to implications of the gospel message for today's climate. Topics discussed include the kingdom of God, power, and the relationship between the church and secular authority. Wright and Bird's purpose is neither to promote some political agenda nor inform Christians how to vote. Circumstances and the Bible demand a more nuanced approach. Rather, they wish to help us understand the implications of the gospel for our daily interaction with the world and to act accordingly. In the end, this is a call for Christian action and a source of hope for the church today.'

JOSEPH D. FANTIN

'The rise of Christian nationalism in the United States, the rise of Buddhist nationalism and the coup in Myanmar, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the Israel-Palestine conflict all pose moral challenges in how Christians should faithfully witness to Jesus as the global lord of freedom. N. T. Wright and Michael Bird, whose lives have both been shaped by world empires in some way, have written a timely book on Jesus and the powers. Using the Bible as source and the kingdom of God as a theological foundation, they innovatively demonstrate how Jesus and his disciples' political witness against powers in the first century should be used as a contextual guide for the contemporary church's public witness against political powers of the regimes for the common good in the twenty-first century. This brilliant book is a fresh contribution to New Testament political theology today. It offers readers a nuanced understanding of the relationship between Christ, the kingdom, the church, and politics. This book is academic yet accessible, political yet pastoral. I highly recommend it to anyone working in the global academy, grassroots church, and public society.'

DAVID THANG MOE

'An excellent, short pilgrimage in biblical political theology! With divisions and animosities running high within and among nations and with autocrats increasingly in charge, we need this book acutely.'

MIROSLAV VOLF

'At a time when discussions about Christian nationalism and debates over religion and politics too often involve more heat than light, Jesus and the Powers offers something different. Drawing on their expertise in biblical theology and on two millennia of global Christian history, Tom Wright and Mike Bird present a defense of liberal democracy that pushes back against the extremes of the Left and the Right. There are no easy answers here, but readers across religious and political spectrums will find much to grapple with in this sharply written text, and perhaps also a framework for the pursuit of mutual human flourishing in a polarized age.'

KRISTIN KOBES DUMEZ

'Almost every Christian today struggles at some level to understand the political implications of the gospel: What have kingdom concerns to do with cultural crises, or the good news with the daily news? Under what circumstances is civil disobedience warranted? Can a Christian wholeheartedly support any political system? In Jesus and the Powers, you will find Mike Bird and Tom Wright neither fence-sitting nor drumbeating, but guiding Christians thoughtfully, practically, and jovially through a minefield of contemporary political and social questions with a careful commitment that draws deeply on the wisdom of the Bible.'

CHRISTOPHER WATKIN

'Many Christians are asking afresh whether the Bible can be helpful for us in the 2020s to be fully committed followers of Jesus, on the one hand, and yet also be engaged in the political realm, on the other hand. The authors of this book have spent much of their lives attempting to understand the New Testament and here bring their decades of academic expertise, accumulated wisdom, and Christian convictions to bear on some of the most difficult but relevant questions at this nexus today, in particular how the church should retain its witness to the gospel while interfacing with the state and its various kinds of governments. Their invitation to explore what faithfulness means between Christian separatism and Christian nationalism is a gift especially to believers that hold Scripture to be normative for Christian faith and practice in a pluralistic world.'

AMOS YONG

'This is an ambitious book of the sort that only two seasoned theologians and (equally important) true lovers of Jesus could conceive of and write. And it is a book Christians need in this time of war, political turmoil, and threats to human flourishing around the world—many of these, the fruit of arrogant earthly empires. What should the church's response be to such profound brokenness? And what should the response of individual Christians be? The book's arguments marry political theology with sound history, both ancient and modern, all to show that 'the kingdom of God is not from this world, but it is emphatically for this world.' History shows that other lords and kings will rise and fall, trampling others underfoot in the process, but there will always, only be one lord and king. And that is a call to action for us all.'

author of Cultural Christians in the Early Church& NADYA WILLIAMS

'Jesus inaugurated his ministry by proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God. What does that long-ago event have to do with us today? Everything, say the authors of Jesus and the Powers. The fundamental character of authentic Christian political activity, they argue, is 'building for the kingdom.' Using their skills as esteemed New Testament scholars, the authors first illuminate what Jesus would have meant by 'the kingdom of God' and then explore how present-day Christians can build for the kingdom. I know of no other book that comes even close to locating, so insightfully and in such rich detail, Christian political activity within the context of the coming of the kingdom. Given what is happening in politics today, their call for Christians to engage as workers for the kingdom could not be timelier.'

NICHOLAS WOLTERSTORFF