The conversation at Generous Orthodoxy Thinktank is great. Steve Bush and James KA Smith are among others discussing “What is Constantinianism?”. Eleswhere on that same Thinktank, there is a post about Wallis’ NYTimes editorial where Kevin Hector wonders if Wallis is as “statist” as he has been accused of being. James KA Smith says he is, Eric agrees, and DLW argues for the value of a “moderating” influence upon the radicalism of some of the “Red States” types (“moderation” is my probably way over-simplifying description, but I just wanted to give a real quick overview. the comments themselves are worth the read.
I like this paragraph from the “What is Constantinianism?” post:
It often goes unnoticed that Hauerwas and Willimon allow, “The confessing church can participate in secular movements against war, against hunger, and against other forms of inhumanity” (Resident Aliens, 47). Their concern, which I would echo, is, “Unless the church and Christians are trained first to understand their community’s language, they will lack resources to notice times when the language of the state is not their own” (Hauerwas Reader, 102-106). But efforts to disciple ourselves to understand our own ecclesial language do not preclude involvement in societal issues.
I provide some more quotes along the same line (at least I see a conneciton) in this post from Hauerwas’ Performing the Faith.
