My previous post “In Defense of Democracy” was less a “defense” as an attempt to get at the question of how to think about this theologically.  There are lots of theological discussions on this,  like “the two kingdoms”,  which many base on Romans 13.  I seem to prefer a more fluid, overlapping,  dynamic division of the two, of church and state,  of City of God vs City of Man.  I ‘ve not been back into Graham Ward’s Cities of God for a while because it has been much more of a “Theology/Sociology of the City”  than it has been an exploration of the church and state question.  There are a variety of arguments and positions on just what approach the church should take to the state,  and how it should “engage” ,  and how to speak in such engagements.  I see such fluidity in Hauerwas, and Yoder,  and in Cavanaugh and JKA Smith,  I have expressed a deep desire to see more dialogue between those advocating a more direct and ongoing “dialogue” such as the Progressive Christians and Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo,  etc.  and those stressing a more “ecclesial -centered” approach,  and express concerns over conceding the terms of the dialogue to the state (in other words,  assuming that “democracy”,  and ipso facto “natural revelation” that gives us “common ground” on the basis of language we can ALL understand). 

This year these questions are particularly interesting in that Pentecost Sunday falls also on Memorial Day weekend,  and so we have American Churches that seem to have given this church observance over the state holiday.  David Fitch might consider this a most direct and egregious “Giveaway” in giving deference to “remembering our veterans” over celebrating Pentecost. 

I’ve been away form my reading for over a month now.  I haven’t as much as cracked a book on theology,  and been slowly poking along with David Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous.   I have ,in a sense,  started a kind of theological lectionary of my own,  often diving into matters of national issues and the church during this time which last year I identified as the national Lenten season,  that stretch between Memorial Day and Independence Day.  Last year I read James Carroll’s House Of War and Stephen Kinzer’s Overthrow.  In 2005,  in watching National Treasure with Nicolas Cage, I noticed a “worshipful, holy ground” kind of reverence toward the Declaration of Independence. I was also beginning my “Radical Orthodoxy” reading (aside from that of Hauerwas)  by reading JKA Smith’s Introducing Radical Orthodoxy ,  and I began to enter into the issues that seemed to arise when considering Sojourners vs Radical Orthodoxy with posts like this. This was also during Jim Wallis’ book tour for God’s Politics,  which brought Wallis into the national spotlight.  I went to see the Nashville event in May of that year.  In 2004 I had seen Fahrenheit 9/11 around this time (late May/early June) and I read Campolo’s book Speaking My Mind where Campolo laid out his concerns over the aftermath of 9/11 and the melding of fundamentalism and nationalism.   I also began some heavy reading of nearly all of the books coming out revealing the deceits of the Bush administration like Ron Suskind’s The Price of Loyalty,  Richard Clarke’s Against All Enemies,  Craig Unger’s House of Bush , House of Saud,  Joseph Wilson’s The Politics of Truth, Bob Graham’s Intelligence Matters, both Woodward books Bush At War and Plan of Attack,  James Carroll’s Crusade, Seymour Hersh’s Chain of Command, Imperial Hubris by then anonymous intelligence agent, Michael Scheuer,  and the Howard Zinn classic A People’s History of the United States. 

This year my “appetite” for this stuff is not nearly so voracious,  but I am interested in reading Al Gore’s new book Assault on Reason.  I have always liked Al Gore.  I read,  way back in 1992, Earth in the Balance when he was Clinton’s running mate.  The man’s depth absolutely dwarfs the feeble and shallow W.  Can you imagine Bush writing a book?  No.  In no way.  While I’m sure there will be a host of issues that I will have with Gore’s arguments about what constitutes “reason”,  and how much of an exalted place he gives to some established “model” of “reason”,  I think he is still one of the deepest thinkers in politics.  I’m also somewhat interested in Obama’s The Audacity of Hope,  which I can get as an audible.com audio book (he is the reader for his book),  but it is abridged,  which keeps me from pulling the trigger just now.  While I have some difficulties buying in to Obama’s take on faith and politics,  he IS on a different, deeper level than most in the field.  At the same time, I am skeptical now,  after a few months of watching him and hearing some things from people who have actually talked to him,  that he isn’t as “uncalculating and genuine” as he may seem.  Hillary I don’t trust at all.  Not because she’s a woman (which would be no reason for me to mistrust her)  ,  but because she seems all to willing to sellout (ie. the Iraq war).  She seems to be all about shrewd and calculating.  And I don’t think she’s electable at all.  I seem to be preferring Edwards,  and perhaps Gore if he decides to get in.  People are assuming that because he’s coming out with this book that is so critical of Bush,  that he must have aspirations of running.  I reject that assumption on the grounds that one doesn’t have to be politically  motivated to be upset by what is going on.  And it’s getting rather late as well.

So what would be a good theological work that explores this two kingdom/city-of-God/church-as-politic thing?