I call upon You, Lord, God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob and Israel, You who are the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who, through the abundance of your mercy, was well-pleased towards us so that we may know You, who made heaven and earth, who rules over all, You who are the one and the true God, above whom there is no other God; You who, by our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit, give to every one who reads this writing to know You, that You alone are God, to be strengthened in You, and to avoid every heretical and godless and impious teaching.

St Irenaeus of Lyons, Against the Heresies 3:6:4


Thursday, July 3, 2014

Christian Political Action: Defined



The Christian political task is to bring to the whole world, in the political way and for the political side of its life, the blessing of Christ’s redemptive concern for the world. It is a task directed to human society in the world. It is genuinely Christian and meaningful only when it is an activity of service to the world, to all mankind. For this reason it can never be a camouflage effort to further the interests of particular Christian citizens, or more or less Christian communities or even of the Christian churches as they are instituted in a particular time and space. Christian political action is, as they say in the Netherlands, “Het volk ten daag,” this is to say, For the good of the (whole) people. Coming out of the integral Christian task of renewal, Christian political action seeks, not as an activity of any instituted church or group of churches, but as a political activity of the Body of Christ, to reform the world in its political aspects, so that there too as acknowledgement may come of the good and holy Law of God and that thus the blessings that follow upon obedience may be showered upon the life of humanity.

H. Evan Runner, Scriptural Religion and Political Task, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Wedge Publishing Foundation, 1974), 42.

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