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Glenn E. Tinder

The Political Meaning of Christianity: An Interpretation Paperback – January 18, 2000

by Glenn Tinder (Author)

4.7 11 ratings

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The Political Meaning of Christianity brings to light various important issues of contemporary concern within the public and considers, with a fresh perspective, several issues in political theory.

Print length

270 pages
Language

English
Publication date

January 18, 2000
Dimensions

5.88 x 0.61 x 8.38 inches
ISBN-10

1579104266
ISBN-13

978-1579104269
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Editorial Reviews

Review

In a world afflicted by religionized politics and politicized religion, Glenn Tinder writes with rare lucidity and wisdom on necessary connections between biblical faith and public responsibility. Even where one disagrees with him, one learns from the disagreement. This book will surely elevate the discourse about a subject too often surrounded by passionate confusions.
Richard John Neuhaus

About the Author

Glenn Tinder is Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He has authored several works including, Community: Reflections on a Tragic Ideal.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wipf and Stock (January 18, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 270 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1579104266
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1579104269
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.88 x 0.61 x 8.38 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,125,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,817 in Church & State Religious Studies
- #3,892 in History of Religion & Politics
- #37,148 in Christian Ministry & Church Leadership (Books)

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4.7 11 ratings

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Jonathan S. Watson

Understand Politics by Reading One Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 1, 2017

Verified Purchase

Buy and read this book. Probably the best summary of politics written in recent years.

From the Prologue:
"we shall be limitlessly respectful of human beings but wary of society"
"Christianity implies skepticism concerning political ideas and plans"
"It is essential to the prophetic stance that it is maintained only by individuals. It is not a standard for group action."
"To stand prophetically is to rely, in one's own weakness, on the strength of God."
"Where can one stand between cynicism and sentimentality, apathy and fanaticism?"

Tinder gives answers in clear and well-structured prose. He guides the reader, showing how to think about Fascism, communism, socialism, activism, passivism, freedom, church, social justice and even nuclear war.

One person found this helpful

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caseyat bat

Every Christian and non-Christian should read this book.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

Delves deeply into how Christians should act "in history" as we struggle our way through this world. The "Prophetic Stance" certainly contradicts the behavior of self-proclaimed "Christians". Deals with everything from Agape Love, to having the poor with us always, to social transformation. Not light reading. Each premise and conclusion set leads to the next set. Thoroughly based on scripture and context of today's world. I purchased two additional copies for my last two pastors. Highly recommend this book to all who really want to get perspective on out walk through our messed up social and political world.

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sir_foulto

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 5, 2016

Verified Purchase

Great read and in great condition.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 21, 2022

This slim volume is a powerful rebuke to modernists who basically view Christianity as some sort of advanced social justice agency, in denial of the tragic view of life and of man's fallen state. It confronts head on the issue of sin and of evil in the world, and of man's future in the world to come.

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Kindle Customer

Political Meaning of Christianity

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 10, 2009

Over the years I've frequently used Glenn Tinder's Political Thinking in my Social and Political Philosophy classes. Though evident to a discerning reader of that work, the somewhat muted Christian convictions of this MIT political science professor peal like church bells in The Political Meaning of Christianity: an Introduction (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, c. 1989).
Tinder makes "a personal statement," one shaped "by the Bible and by Christian traditions" (p. 1). So it's a testament, a reflective work by a scholar who's devoted a lifetime to political thinking, one who argues that a generally solitary "prophetic stance" is the proper stance for Christians living in a forever fallen world. He focuses his reflections on five general themes: the exaltation of the individual; prophetic hope; liberty; social transformation; and prophetic spirituality.
Given Christianity's first principle, agape love, "we come to the major premise of the prophetic stance and, indeed, of all Christian social and political thinking--the concept of the exalted individual" (p. 27). Created by God, designed in His image, we persons have a unique destiny. Our individual lives count for something! There's a bedrock equality of persons in God's family, so "no one is to be casually sacrificed" (p. 32). No one's excluded, for agape love reaches out to all peoples. Despite the individual's exalted status, of course, Christians recognize man's "fallen" predicament as well--a paradoxical but profoundly true reality. Sin flaws our royal lineage! It pervades that "worldliness" which handcuffs us to the realm at odds with God. It takes two paths. First, there's pride, the incessant drive to be gods. Second, when self-exaltation fails, we turn to diversions. Both approaches help us "avoid the conscious dependence on God that is faith" (p. 37).
Craving independence for ourselves, claiming a la Nietzsche a "Man-god" status which repudiates the "God-man" revelation of Christ Jesus, various forms of "idealism," especially nationalism, encourage us to exalt and worship ourselves. "Dostoevsky wrote that 'a man cannot live without worshiping something.'" Whoever denies God kneels before idols--which are only occasionally hand¬crafted figures. Contemporary ideologies, movements, and messiahs routinely attain god-like standing in their followers' minds. All too often those who are most "proud of their criti¬cal and discerning spirit have rejected Christ and bowed down before Stalin, Mao, or some other secular savior" (p. 50).
Without God, we slyly exalt ourselves and seek to fabricate the fantasies spawned by revolutionaries' dreams, thereby losing the true "exal¬tation of the individual" made possible for us in Christ. Yet in its current condition this "world is not a fitting home for the exalted individual" (p. 53). Designed for a better world, we desire a perfect community. Thus we need a biblically-based "prophetic hope" to sustain us on our jour¬ney. To a degree we may, now and then, enter into communities of love and grace, but they're forever imperfect and transient. Given our fallen¬ness, we never really find or create a truly "good society" which secures for us the healthy community we long for.
In the midst of such imperfection, the prophetic stance grants us hope. It enables us to patiently wait on God, quietly listening and offering ourselves to Him, confident that only He can create the community of justice and righteousness we crave. Here Tinder cites Martin Buber, who "identifies as 'the core' of Isaiah's 'theopolit¬ical teaching' the doctrine that 'Israel must keep still, as YHVH keeps still'" (p. 71). This means we reject reckless proposals to abolish evil and establish the "good society." Confident that eternity alone provides the context for the exalted individual's full realization, we patiently allow God to transact His will in our present world. Christians, living within Christ's Church, partially satisfy the longing for healthy community. "Community consists in sharing the truth, and degrees of community can be measured by the significance of the truth that is shared" (p. 91). Consequently, "Only theological truth (using this term to comprise liturgy and all other communal elements in the Church) can engage us in our full humanity; hence, it is the only truth in whose sharing our commonality can be fully realized" (p. 91). Sharing such truth with one another, Tinder argues, is our only real liberty. Much that marches under the guise of "liberty" leads to the savage despotisms which dot the 20th century land¬scape. But true "Liberty is the possibility of entering with others into the search for truth. It is the opportunity of inquiring in common into destiny. Our greatest need as human beings is to take account of the ultimate issues before us--death, evil, redemption--and to do this in the company of our fellow human beings. We need to be participants in searching conversations" (p. 122). That's the liberty which enables us to find our destiny, our eternal dignity as persons created in the image of God.
This anchors us in a "prophetic spirituality" which allows us to stay in touch with our world while attuned to heaven, always discerning the spiritual dimensions and ramifications of politics. In the spiritual disciplines of study and prayer, a believer "seeks God and strives for the clarity of spirit in which other human beings can be heard and answered" (p. 200). Listening to God and man, following God's guidance in response to human need, "prophetic spirituality" funnels health and wholeness to the world less by action than reflection, less by doing things than teaching truths . . . teaching truths by lifting up and looking steadily to the Incar¬nate Truth, Christ Jesus.
Thus Tinder takes an Augustinian historiographical stance: two communities, one heavenly and one earthly, intermingle in time; but only the heavenly community (prefigured by Christ and partially realized in the Church) deserves our deepest fidelity. And by making God's Kingdom our final end, our only ultimate goal, we simultaneously give the world what it most needs: truth to live by.

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