A Pentecostal Political Theology for American Renewal: Spirit of the Kingdoms, Citizens of the Cities

✍ Scribed by Steven M. Studebaker (auth.)

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 298
• Series: Christianity and Renewal - Interdisciplinary Studies
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book argues that Christians have a stake in the sustainability and success of core cultural values of the West in general and America in particular. Steven M. Studebaker considers Western and American decline from a theological and, specifically, Pentecostal perspective. The volume proposes and develops a Pentecostal political theology that can be used to address and reframe Christian political identity in the United States.
Studebaker asserts that American Christians are currently not properly engaged in preventing America’s decline or halting the shifts in its core values. The problem, he suggests, is that American Christianity not only gives little thought to the state of the nation beyond a handful of moral issues like abortion, but its popular political theologies lead Christians to think of themselves more as aliens than as citizens. This book posits that the proposed Pentecostal political theology would help American Christians view themselves as citizens and better recognize their stake in the renewal of their nation. The foundation of this proposed political theology is a pneumatological narrative of renewal—a biblical narrative of the Spirit that begins with creation, proceeds through Incarnation and Pentecost, and culminates in the new creation and everlasting kingdom of God. This narrative provides the foundation for a political theology that speaks to the issues of Christian political identity and encourages Christian political participation.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xiv
Introduction....Pages 1-12
Front Matter....Pages 13-13
Exceptional and Indispensable Nation....Pages 15-49
Impotent Nation....Pages 51-77
Broke and Brainless Nation....Pages 79-106
Front Matter....Pages 107-107
Augustinian Visions: Theological and Popular....Pages 109-140
The Spirit and the Kingdoms....Pages 141-173
Citizens of the Cities....Pages 175-198
Front Matter....Pages 199-199
Blessed but not Special....Pages 201-224
Global Leadership Without Hubris....Pages 225-251
Fiscal Justice and Renewing Education....Pages 253-278
Back Matter....Pages 279-292

✦ Subjects

Christianity;Religion and Society;Christian Theology;Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism