Citizens of Heaven, Residents of the Earth

About this book

Much of the language of the church--messiah, kingdom, lord--belongs to the realm of politics as much as it does that of religion. Yet, given the tendency in Western society to treat politics as the business of government and moral instruction as the prerogative of the church, the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount is habitually regarded as an example of the latter to the neglect of its political content. This book challenges this limitation of politics to statecraft as it identifies Christian social practices, such as nonviolence, enemy-love, and unlimited generosity, as laying the foundation for a community that is more truly political, that is, more properly ordered, than are its secular alternatives. The close exegesis of the Sermon on the Mount unfolds through an engagement with the theologies of Gustavo Gutierrez and John Howard Yoder. Indeed, this study brings together the work of these two important twentieth-century theologians for the first time. New Testament and theological scholars and students as well as those interested in the relation of religion and politics will learn from and be challenged by this important book.