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The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology
This book by Oliver O'Donovan is a work of systematic Christian political thought, combining Biblical interpretation, historical discussion of the Western political and theological tradition, theoretical construction and critical engagement with contemporary views. It argues for an alternative to political theology, one that is more politically constructive than the dominant models of the past generation.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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About the author
Oliver O'Donovan
47 books58 followersOliver O'Donovan FBA FRSE (born 1945) is a scholar known for his work in the field of Christian ethics. He has also made contributions to political theology, both contemporary and historical.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
December 28, 2015
O'Donovan is a terrible writer but a brilliant thinker. If I understand his main argument, I think he's basically right. Someone should rewrite this book in English.
December 23, 2019
Oliver O’Donovan puts forward an account of political theology grounded on the reign of God as revealed in the history of Israel and in Christ. His approach contrasts with political theologies constructed on more narrow bases, such as a single narrative or a few select verses of Scripture. From the foundation of a reign of God, O’Donovan conceives of secular authority as fulfilling a modest function between the times of Christ’s first and second advents, exercising judgment even as it heeds the prophetic voice of the church. Along the way, O’Donovan defends the Christendom “idea” (if not fully Christendom itself) as the attempt of the church to fulfill its mission by establishing a pattern for receiving obedient secular rulers into its ranks. O’Donovan’s writing is tough sledding, especially in the early chapters, but reading becomes easier once the reader understands what the author is up to and well worth the effort.
November 7, 2021
A dense read, but one that quickly proves itself to be worth the slog and the acclaim it has received. O’Donovan’s argument for a truly evangelical political theology is fascinating all throughout, frustrating at points, and befuddling here and there.
I will quickly confess that the lack of a fifth star is most likely due to my inability and ignorance.
I will quickly confess that the lack of a fifth star is most likely due to my inability and ignorance.
October 14, 2021
4.5 stars. O’Donovan writes an apology for Christendom and an indictment on “late-modern liberal society.” He makes several important contributions to political theology, although he is not equally convincing on each of his claims. Some of his argument seems superimposed and not adequately supported. But overall it is an important book and should be carefully considered.
Our political views need to be shaped more by Scripture and by the rich tradition of political theology that has preceded us and less by the current political climate. This is exactly what O’Donovan seeks to do. And he highlights the importance of this task right from the start: “Theology must be political to be evangelical.”
1. A "totalised" suspicion and criticism has eroded the notion of authority. “Late-modern liberal society” has become skeptical of any political claim and has sought to replace political philosophy with sociology and psychology. But in modern politics the question of authority cannot be dispensed with so easily. It must be recovered in order to develop a fully-formed political theology. To recover it, we will need "true political concepts", as opposed to structural safeguards.
1A. Authority can be recovered by grounding political authority in the reign of God. "A central thesis in what follows is that theology, by developing its account of the reign of God, may recover the ground traditionally held by the notion of authority."
1B. The reign of God and its relation to politics must be understood through our appreciation for Israel within salvation history. It is through Israel that God was making his purposes known to the world. And "the governing principle is the kingly rule of God, expressed in Israel’s corporate existence and brought to final effect in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.”
2. Israel's history reveals three foundational “political concepts” and a fourth response which affirms the political structure: Salvation, Judgment, and Possession, and the fourth (response) is Praise/Worship. “[F]rom th[e]se concepts we may derive an orientation of political principle through which the legacy of Israel regulates our own political analysis and deliberation, Yhwh’s victory lays hold on our intelligence and claims is still."
3. From these political concepts are derived six theorems to aid in constructing political theology, and these six theorems can be used to reestablish the notion of authority: “The threefold analysis of divine rule as salvation, judgment and possession will provide a framework for exploring the major questions about authority posed by the Western tradition. The unique covenant of Yhwh and Israel can be seen as a point of discourse from which the nature of all political authority comes into view. Out of the self-possession of this people in their relation to God springs the possibility of other peoples' possessing themselves in God. In this hermeneutic assumption lay the actual continuity between Israel's experience and the Western tradition. In what follows it will be our business to reclaim it from oblivion."
3A. First Theorem: "Political authority arises where power, the execution of right and the perpetuation of tradition are assured together in one coordinated agency."
3B. Second Theorem: "That any regime should actually come to hold authority, and should continue to hold it, is a work of divine providence in history, not a mere accomplishment of the human task of political service."
3C. Third Theorem: "In acknowledging political authority, society proves its political identity." This corresponds to the fourth concept: praise. All political communities worship something--it is the human impulse to do so, corporately as well as individually. "Shall we conclude, then, that within every political society there occurs, implicitly, an act of worship of divine rule?"
3D. Fourth Theorem: "The authority of a human regime mediates divine authority in a unitary structure, but is subject to the authority of law within the community, which bears independent witness to the divine command."
3E. Fifth Theorem: "the appropriate unifying element in international order is law rather than government."
3F. Sixth Theorem: "the conscience of the individual members of a community is a repository of the moral understanding which shaped it, and may serve to perpetuate it in a crisis of collapsing morale or institution. It is not a bearer of his own primitive pre-social or pre-political rights that the individual demands the respect of the community, but as the bearer of a social understanding which recalls the formative self-understanding fo the community itself.”
4. Dual authority and some form of the Two Kingdoms doctrine (think Augustine, not Luther or R2K) serve as a framework for appropriately balancing the political and spiritual realisms of authority. As the Incarnation comprised two natures, so our existence has two aspects to which the two kingdoms pertain. This unity and duality are necessary "to rediscover politics not as a self-enclosed field of human endeavour but as the theatre of the divine self-disclosure; to rediscover God as the one who exercises rule."
5. In his life, death, and resurrection, Christ executed the office of both mediator (of God's rule on earth) and representative (the right response of God's people). God's rule on earth must be accounted for in any adequate political theology. "By what right is the term 'political' claimed exclusively for the defense of social structures which refuse the deeper spiritual and cosmic aspirations of mankind? . . . A 'pure' political theory which can make it a matter of intellectual conscience to disinterest itself in the transcendent is not one that any humane thinker need feel guilt about rejecting."
6. Jesus' life and ministry fulfilled and represented the political concepts developed through Israel's history--salvation (power), judgment (against Israel), possession (new giving of the law), and praise.
7. The apostolic church proclaimed the events of Christ's life, which establish the pattern for political authority in the Christian age: Advent, Passion, Restoration, Exaltation.
8. After the exaltation of Christ, secular authorities are no longer mediators of the rule of God (as Israel had been); they mediate his judgments only. This was a weak spot, in my mind, to O’Donovan’s argument. He did not adequately explain why the judicial function is the only remaining role for secular authorities in the new era. That said, I still agreed with his concluding reflection: “The Messianic age was to be the age of ultimate choices and conflicts, in which the pluriform structures of political mediation would be propelled to a simple decision between two governments: the creative government of the Word of God and the predatory self-destructive government of human self-rule. In this age that decision must underlie all other decisions."
9. The church is a political society which reflects the Christ-event by gathering (Advent), suffering (Passion), rejoicing (Restoration), and proclaiming (Exaltation). "The church represents God's Kingdom by living under its rule, and by welcoming the world under its rule." The church is the Kingdom of God as it is represented on earth. Though secular (earthly) kingdoms rise and fall, it shall remain and shall prevail.
10. Christendom was an epoch marked not by perfect understanding, but by serious reflection on God's rule on earth. O'Donovan defines Christendom as "the idea of a professedly Christian secular political order, and the history of that idea in practice. Christendom is an era, an era in which the truth of Christianity was taken to be a truth of secular politics." Set as the period "between AD 313, the date of the Edict of Milan, and 1791, the date of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, though these moments are symbolic only." During this time, nations reflected on their raison d'etre in the age of Christ.
11. The legacy of Christendom lies in its transferral of certain principles: Freedom (Advent, Gathering Community), Gladness in Suffering (Passion, Suffering Community), Natural Rights (Restoration, Rejoicing Community), Openess of Speech (Exaltation, Proclaiming Community). Its legacy reveals that secular authorities in the Christian era are limited to the judicial act, making public judgments according to God's law. In the course of the seventeenth century, however, under the influence of contract-theory and individualism of the Enlightenment, an important shift in emphasis occurred in radical political thought: the ruler’s primary responsibility ceased to be thought of as being to divine law, but rather to the people whose supposed act constituted him. . . This act of popular will came to be thought of as the source of all law and constitutional order.”
12. Late-modern liberal society has perverted each of these legacies and has "left its father's house and followed the way of the prodigal." The acephalous community is now the norm.
Our political views need to be shaped more by Scripture and by the rich tradition of political theology that has preceded us and less by the current political climate. This is exactly what O’Donovan seeks to do. And he highlights the importance of this task right from the start: “Theology must be political to be evangelical.”
1. A "totalised" suspicion and criticism has eroded the notion of authority. “Late-modern liberal society” has become skeptical of any political claim and has sought to replace political philosophy with sociology and psychology. But in modern politics the question of authority cannot be dispensed with so easily. It must be recovered in order to develop a fully-formed political theology. To recover it, we will need "true political concepts", as opposed to structural safeguards.
1A. Authority can be recovered by grounding political authority in the reign of God. "A central thesis in what follows is that theology, by developing its account of the reign of God, may recover the ground traditionally held by the notion of authority."
1B. The reign of God and its relation to politics must be understood through our appreciation for Israel within salvation history. It is through Israel that God was making his purposes known to the world. And "the governing principle is the kingly rule of God, expressed in Israel’s corporate existence and brought to final effect in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.”
2. Israel's history reveals three foundational “political concepts” and a fourth response which affirms the political structure: Salvation, Judgment, and Possession, and the fourth (response) is Praise/Worship. “[F]rom th[e]se concepts we may derive an orientation of political principle through which the legacy of Israel regulates our own political analysis and deliberation, Yhwh’s victory lays hold on our intelligence and claims is still."
3. From these political concepts are derived six theorems to aid in constructing political theology, and these six theorems can be used to reestablish the notion of authority: “The threefold analysis of divine rule as salvation, judgment and possession will provide a framework for exploring the major questions about authority posed by the Western tradition. The unique covenant of Yhwh and Israel can be seen as a point of discourse from which the nature of all political authority comes into view. Out of the self-possession of this people in their relation to God springs the possibility of other peoples' possessing themselves in God. In this hermeneutic assumption lay the actual continuity between Israel's experience and the Western tradition. In what follows it will be our business to reclaim it from oblivion."
3A. First Theorem: "Political authority arises where power, the execution of right and the perpetuation of tradition are assured together in one coordinated agency."
3B. Second Theorem: "That any regime should actually come to hold authority, and should continue to hold it, is a work of divine providence in history, not a mere accomplishment of the human task of political service."
3C. Third Theorem: "In acknowledging political authority, society proves its political identity." This corresponds to the fourth concept: praise. All political communities worship something--it is the human impulse to do so, corporately as well as individually. "Shall we conclude, then, that within every political society there occurs, implicitly, an act of worship of divine rule?"
3D. Fourth Theorem: "The authority of a human regime mediates divine authority in a unitary structure, but is subject to the authority of law within the community, which bears independent witness to the divine command."
3E. Fifth Theorem: "the appropriate unifying element in international order is law rather than government."
3F. Sixth Theorem: "the conscience of the individual members of a community is a repository of the moral understanding which shaped it, and may serve to perpetuate it in a crisis of collapsing morale or institution. It is not a bearer of his own primitive pre-social or pre-political rights that the individual demands the respect of the community, but as the bearer of a social understanding which recalls the formative self-understanding fo the community itself.”
4. Dual authority and some form of the Two Kingdoms doctrine (think Augustine, not Luther or R2K) serve as a framework for appropriately balancing the political and spiritual realisms of authority. As the Incarnation comprised two natures, so our existence has two aspects to which the two kingdoms pertain. This unity and duality are necessary "to rediscover politics not as a self-enclosed field of human endeavour but as the theatre of the divine self-disclosure; to rediscover God as the one who exercises rule."
5. In his life, death, and resurrection, Christ executed the office of both mediator (of God's rule on earth) and representative (the right response of God's people). God's rule on earth must be accounted for in any adequate political theology. "By what right is the term 'political' claimed exclusively for the defense of social structures which refuse the deeper spiritual and cosmic aspirations of mankind? . . . A 'pure' political theory which can make it a matter of intellectual conscience to disinterest itself in the transcendent is not one that any humane thinker need feel guilt about rejecting."
6. Jesus' life and ministry fulfilled and represented the political concepts developed through Israel's history--salvation (power), judgment (against Israel), possession (new giving of the law), and praise.
7. The apostolic church proclaimed the events of Christ's life, which establish the pattern for political authority in the Christian age: Advent, Passion, Restoration, Exaltation.
8. After the exaltation of Christ, secular authorities are no longer mediators of the rule of God (as Israel had been); they mediate his judgments only. This was a weak spot, in my mind, to O’Donovan’s argument. He did not adequately explain why the judicial function is the only remaining role for secular authorities in the new era. That said, I still agreed with his concluding reflection: “The Messianic age was to be the age of ultimate choices and conflicts, in which the pluriform structures of political mediation would be propelled to a simple decision between two governments: the creative government of the Word of God and the predatory self-destructive government of human self-rule. In this age that decision must underlie all other decisions."
9. The church is a political society which reflects the Christ-event by gathering (Advent), suffering (Passion), rejoicing (Restoration), and proclaiming (Exaltation). "The church represents God's Kingdom by living under its rule, and by welcoming the world under its rule." The church is the Kingdom of God as it is represented on earth. Though secular (earthly) kingdoms rise and fall, it shall remain and shall prevail.
10. Christendom was an epoch marked not by perfect understanding, but by serious reflection on God's rule on earth. O'Donovan defines Christendom as "the idea of a professedly Christian secular political order, and the history of that idea in practice. Christendom is an era, an era in which the truth of Christianity was taken to be a truth of secular politics." Set as the period "between AD 313, the date of the Edict of Milan, and 1791, the date of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, though these moments are symbolic only." During this time, nations reflected on their raison d'etre in the age of Christ.
11. The legacy of Christendom lies in its transferral of certain principles: Freedom (Advent, Gathering Community), Gladness in Suffering (Passion, Suffering Community), Natural Rights (Restoration, Rejoicing Community), Openess of Speech (Exaltation, Proclaiming Community). Its legacy reveals that secular authorities in the Christian era are limited to the judicial act, making public judgments according to God's law. In the course of the seventeenth century, however, under the influence of contract-theory and individualism of the Enlightenment, an important shift in emphasis occurred in radical political thought: the ruler’s primary responsibility ceased to be thought of as being to divine law, but rather to the people whose supposed act constituted him. . . This act of popular will came to be thought of as the source of all law and constitutional order.”
12. Late-modern liberal society has perverted each of these legacies and has "left its father's house and followed the way of the prodigal." The acephalous community is now the norm.
August 10, 2022
A stellar exploration of political theology and what the Scripture can (and cannot) say about the Church and politics. Perhaps the best insight is that "secular" rulers are those that have authority in the saeculum -- the time between the Ascension and the Second Coming -- and their authority is ultimately subordinate to Christ's.
August 4, 2011
Oliver O'Donovan (hereafter OO) meticulously sets forth the case for the Rule of Christ in contemporary society. Unlike modern-day authors who like a vague notion of "kingship" because it sounds like something Jesus might have said, OO develops a thorough biblical theology of "God's rule" and then applies it to tough situations.
Exposition:
1. Kingship is mediated through "judgment," "Law-keeping/giving," and "salvation." To "judge is to bring the already-present distinction between the righteous and unrighteous to light. The third point of reference, salvation, leads to the theme of "possession." "Political authority arises where power, the execution of right and the perpetuation of tradition are assured together in one coordinated agency" (46).
2. The individual is the lonely one who prophecies against the chosen people for the sake of the chosen people. He is commonly called to suffer for the sake of bringing wisdom to the community. He is the one who speaks both for Yahweh against the community and for the community in its anguish under Yahweh's blows. Ultimately, this is the servant of Isaiah 53. The individual in general, however, is the one who applies the mediated rule of Yahweh in specific applications.
3. Jesus' works of power were victories over and judgments against the demonic realm. He also proclaimed the coming judgment of Israel, which would ultimately redefine what it meant to be "Israel" and "Abraham's seed." In short, Jesus demonstrated power, judgment, and continuity in Israel.
4. The Kingdom of God is brought into sharp relief when it confronts the powers of this world. The Kingdom of God enhances our knowledge of "community." The Church is a model to the State of how God rules a community.
5. The Church is a political society. It is to find the nations (in mission) and to be the New World Order for the Kingdom of God. Its political character is discerned by faith (166).
6. "The Church represents God's kingdom by living under its rule and welcoming the world to its rule" (174). O'Donovan's strongest point is his discussion of "martyrology." Martyrdom is the focal point of a struggle between Christ and Society, with the powers inevitably bound to lose (179). We suffer for the sake and salvation of the world. As the church we are a glad community who rejoices in the receiving back of the created order.
7. Society and rulers--society is to be transformed while rulers disappear. OO defines Christendom as a Christian secular political order. The Church is to witness to the Kingdom of God and Christendom is the response to that witness. Christendom is the only way to legitimately maintain the two kingdoms doctrine. Christendom separates the priest-role from the king-role.
Thoughts:
This book is written on the advanced level. It sometimes makes for slow reading. OO's best sections were on the church and Christendom. Why is Christendom such a radical idea? Surely if rulers get converted the will...well...maybe live and rule like....converted Christians! Seriously, this book gives hope for the Christian future and a challenge against naievete. A few flaws with the book: I would like to see these ideas put into a more concrete form. Secondly, the last chapter had too much information in it. I lost track of the argument.
Aside from the difficult read, this book is masterfully done.
Exposition:
1. Kingship is mediated through "judgment," "Law-keeping/giving," and "salvation." To "judge is to bring the already-present distinction between the righteous and unrighteous to light. The third point of reference, salvation, leads to the theme of "possession." "Political authority arises where power, the execution of right and the perpetuation of tradition are assured together in one coordinated agency" (46).
2. The individual is the lonely one who prophecies against the chosen people for the sake of the chosen people. He is commonly called to suffer for the sake of bringing wisdom to the community. He is the one who speaks both for Yahweh against the community and for the community in its anguish under Yahweh's blows. Ultimately, this is the servant of Isaiah 53. The individual in general, however, is the one who applies the mediated rule of Yahweh in specific applications.
3. Jesus' works of power were victories over and judgments against the demonic realm. He also proclaimed the coming judgment of Israel, which would ultimately redefine what it meant to be "Israel" and "Abraham's seed." In short, Jesus demonstrated power, judgment, and continuity in Israel.
4. The Kingdom of God is brought into sharp relief when it confronts the powers of this world. The Kingdom of God enhances our knowledge of "community." The Church is a model to the State of how God rules a community.
5. The Church is a political society. It is to find the nations (in mission) and to be the New World Order for the Kingdom of God. Its political character is discerned by faith (166).
6. "The Church represents God's kingdom by living under its rule and welcoming the world to its rule" (174). O'Donovan's strongest point is his discussion of "martyrology." Martyrdom is the focal point of a struggle between Christ and Society, with the powers inevitably bound to lose (179). We suffer for the sake and salvation of the world. As the church we are a glad community who rejoices in the receiving back of the created order.
7. Society and rulers--society is to be transformed while rulers disappear. OO defines Christendom as a Christian secular political order. The Church is to witness to the Kingdom of God and Christendom is the response to that witness. Christendom is the only way to legitimately maintain the two kingdoms doctrine. Christendom separates the priest-role from the king-role.
Thoughts:
This book is written on the advanced level. It sometimes makes for slow reading. OO's best sections were on the church and Christendom. Why is Christendom such a radical idea? Surely if rulers get converted the will...well...maybe live and rule like....converted Christians! Seriously, this book gives hope for the Christian future and a challenge against naievete. A few flaws with the book: I would like to see these ideas put into a more concrete form. Secondly, the last chapter had too much information in it. I lost track of the argument.
Aside from the difficult read, this book is masterfully done.
June 6, 2023
"Jesus proclaimed the ‘fulfilling of the time’ which had brought the ‘Kingdom of God near’ (Mark 3:15). The problem with the question - which continues to be discussed and answered today in terms very little different from those used by the church Fathers—whether the kingdom which fulfilled Israel's time was a ‘political' or a spiritual’ one is that it treats the terms political’ and ‘spiritual ’as known quantities. As though the competing answers, ‘political’, ‘spiritual’, or ‘both political and spiritual’, could make us wiser, when in fact we need to know what the alternatives posed by the question could mean! Political theology must explore the meaning of the alternatives and show why the question, though of fundamental importance, could never be given a straightforward answer. For the terms ‘political’ and ‘spiritual’ take us to the very substance of the proclamation of the Kingdom of God, which spans the two. We have to let ourselves be instructed, even surprised, by what each of them contains: to rediscover politics not as a self-enclosed field of human endeavour but as the theatre of the divine self-disclosure; to rediscover God as the one who exercises rule.
Yet, as in speaking of the Incarnation itself we cannot affirm the hypostatic union without the two natures, so with the Kingdom of God we cannot conceive the henosis of political and spiritual without the duality of the two terms held together in it. That is why those who have asserted that a conception of Two Kingdoms is fundamental to Christian political thought have spoken truly, though at great risk of distorting the truth if they simply leave it at that. The unity of the kingdoms, we may say, is the heart of the Gospel, their duality is the pericardium. Proclaiming the unity of God’s rule in Christ is the task of Christian witness; understanding the duality is the chief assistance rendered by Christian reflection" (82)
Yet, as in speaking of the Incarnation itself we cannot affirm the hypostatic union without the two natures, so with the Kingdom of God we cannot conceive the henosis of political and spiritual without the duality of the two terms held together in it. That is why those who have asserted that a conception of Two Kingdoms is fundamental to Christian political thought have spoken truly, though at great risk of distorting the truth if they simply leave it at that. The unity of the kingdoms, we may say, is the heart of the Gospel, their duality is the pericardium. Proclaiming the unity of God’s rule in Christ is the task of Christian witness; understanding the duality is the chief assistance rendered by Christian reflection" (82)
February 23, 2021
O’Donovan argues carefully for a form of Christendom—not in the form of the papacy or Holy Roman Empire of old, but of each nation taking notice of God’s saving work in history through Christ and his church, then recognising and submitting themselves to his rule.
Broadly, O’Donovan takes Christendom to be an outcome of the church’s mission which the church is not at liberty not to pursue. It is not, as it is often described by secularists and some Christians alike, as a sort of cynical power grab. Discipling the nations, remarkably, might result in the nations being discipled.
The church as described here is explicitly and unashamedly ruled by another king, even Jesus (another dangerous idea), and is not simply a service agency that “assures existing authorities that they will not be disturbed by it, since it does not lay claim to the same ground they occupy” [p 162]. A church that is doing what it ought will genuinely be disruptive to society and the political order as it testifies to Christ’s rule in its words, sacraments and life together.
Like the older fish in David Foster Wallace’s vignette, O’Donovan is keenly aware of the modern liberal democracy water that we are swimming in, and is able to consider it critically.
Despite some troubling takes on the historicity of various scriptural events, this really is a potent challenge to the hands-in-our-pockets, dragging-our-feet relationship that the contemporary church tends to have towards public political matters. Scripture really has a lot to say to us on these matters if we will give it due attention.
Broadly, O’Donovan takes Christendom to be an outcome of the church’s mission which the church is not at liberty not to pursue. It is not, as it is often described by secularists and some Christians alike, as a sort of cynical power grab. Discipling the nations, remarkably, might result in the nations being discipled.
The church as described here is explicitly and unashamedly ruled by another king, even Jesus (another dangerous idea), and is not simply a service agency that “assures existing authorities that they will not be disturbed by it, since it does not lay claim to the same ground they occupy” [p 162]. A church that is doing what it ought will genuinely be disruptive to society and the political order as it testifies to Christ’s rule in its words, sacraments and life together.
Like the older fish in David Foster Wallace’s vignette, O’Donovan is keenly aware of the modern liberal democracy water that we are swimming in, and is able to consider it critically.
Despite some troubling takes on the historicity of various scriptural events, this really is a potent challenge to the hands-in-our-pockets, dragging-our-feet relationship that the contemporary church tends to have towards public political matters. Scripture really has a lot to say to us on these matters if we will give it due attention.
August 29, 2022
Horrible book. Needs an editor but I can get why no editor would take up the impossible task of making this book easy to follow. Arrogant of the author to assume that his readers should spend the amount of time it would take to understand what he's trying to say throughout the book. Also the book uses a whole bunch of block quotes and doesn't say where the sources are that I can tell. I can't believe people think this guy is worth reading.
June 17, 2021
Very thought-provoking analysis of the role of government in relationship to the kingship of Christ.
December 18, 2007
The best theology book I've read in years. O'Donovan re-presents here the grand tradition of Protestant political thought in coherent and persuasive form. Highly recommended.
December 6, 2021
Mixed review. It's not as direct and clear as you'd expect for a book this popular, but the parts that were good were *very* good. Maybe I'm just not mature enough to get the other parts.
""By what right is the term 'political' claimed exclusively for the defense of social structures which refuse the deeper spiritual and cosmic aspirations of mankind?”"
“Did Paul hint to Philemon, it is sometimes asked, that he should free Onesimus? No: because Christ had freed Onesimus without consulting Philemon.”
"We discover we are free when we are commanded by that authority which commands us according to the law of our being, disclosing the secrets of the heart. There is no freedom except when what we are, and do, corresponds to what has been given to us to be and to do... We must receive ourselves from outside ourselves."
"In heeding the church, society heeds a dangerous voice, a voice that is capable of challenging authority effectively, a voice which, when the oppressed have heard it, they cannot remain still... Christ the awaited King has come, he has assumed every structure of law and authority under his own command... Our assertions about freedom, then, have a historical aspect. God has done something which makes it impossible for us any more to treat the authority of human society as final and opaque... he has loosened the claims of existing authority, humbling them under the control of his own law of love."
"The rest to which Christ's faithful are called through death is no calm, philosophic contemplation, but a busy political affair. It is the rest of a city that has laid down its arms and turned to the tasks of cohabitation and to the celebration of worship."
""By what right is the term 'political' claimed exclusively for the defense of social structures which refuse the deeper spiritual and cosmic aspirations of mankind?”"
“Did Paul hint to Philemon, it is sometimes asked, that he should free Onesimus? No: because Christ had freed Onesimus without consulting Philemon.”
"We discover we are free when we are commanded by that authority which commands us according to the law of our being, disclosing the secrets of the heart. There is no freedom except when what we are, and do, corresponds to what has been given to us to be and to do... We must receive ourselves from outside ourselves."
"In heeding the church, society heeds a dangerous voice, a voice that is capable of challenging authority effectively, a voice which, when the oppressed have heard it, they cannot remain still... Christ the awaited King has come, he has assumed every structure of law and authority under his own command... Our assertions about freedom, then, have a historical aspect. God has done something which makes it impossible for us any more to treat the authority of human society as final and opaque... he has loosened the claims of existing authority, humbling them under the control of his own law of love."
"The rest to which Christ's faithful are called through death is no calm, philosophic contemplation, but a busy political affair. It is the rest of a city that has laid down its arms and turned to the tasks of cohabitation and to the celebration of worship."
March 9, 2017
In The Desire of the Nations Oliver O’Donovan lays out a careful and considered political theology based in some of the most erudite Biblical exegesis I have ever read. There is no way to do justice to this magnificent and somewhat overwhelming book in a short review, so I will restrict myself to discussing a few of O’Donovan’s major themes. O’Donovan begins by asking what the Old Testament writers meant when they said that ‘Yhwh reigns’. ‘The cry Yhwh malak carried with it three kinds of association’, he writes. ‘In the first place it offered a geophysical reassurance about the stability of the natural order; in the second place, it offered a reassurance about the international political order, that the God of Israel was in control of the restless turbulence of the nations and their tutelary deities and could safeguard his people; in the third place, it was associated with the ordering of Israel’s own social existence by justice and law, ensuring the protection of the oppressed and vulnerable’. Yhwh rules because He gives Israel victory, because He judges the righteous and the unrighteous, and because He gives Israel the land as its possession. Exactly what this means for us in the twenty-first century isn’t entirely clear, and although O’Donovan does try to draw out some abstract conclusions about the nature of political power it is to his credit that he doesn’t let them overwhelm his exegesis.
Read my full review here: https://wordsbecamebooks.com/2017/03/...
Read my full review here: https://wordsbecamebooks.com/2017/03/...
March 24, 2024
Five stars for the approximately 35% I understood. (If you've read O'Donovan, you know the feeling.) It's a dense read but invigorating. The whole of the Bible is in the background and O'Donovan references its history chronologically, unpacking political theology through the founding of Israel, the establishment of its kingship, exile, the coming of Christ, the establishment of the church, and the later the history of the church - from Constantine through Christendom and postmodernity. One of his central theses is that political power has been permanently changed by the coming of Christ, to whom all authority has been given. Temporal earthly governments now occupy a necessary but reduced place in the world, retaining - as their primary reason for existence - the calling to dispense judgment within society. The church, meantime, is properly understood as a truly political society with its own law, its own king, and its own mission, coexisting (often either uneasily or too easily) with temporal rulers. Citizens of this kingdom have true independence, though they should not use this freedom to behave scandalously. O'Donovan is wary of oversimplifying, and alert to the changing dynamics of history, in which the reforms of one age become the challenges of another.
I am not well-read or knowledgeable enough to assess his analyses of various historical transitions and contemporary arguments; and I don't think I would recommend this book as an introduction to political theology - but it was nevertheless stimulating and sharpened my sense of the Bible as a book that is thoroughly, deeply, and unabashedly about a kingdom and a King.
I am not well-read or knowledgeable enough to assess his analyses of various historical transitions and contemporary arguments; and I don't think I would recommend this book as an introduction to political theology - but it was nevertheless stimulating and sharpened my sense of the Bible as a book that is thoroughly, deeply, and unabashedly about a kingdom and a King.
December 12, 2023
Major thanks to Santiago Zolla for lending me this book! This was one of the most challenging reads of the year, not only because the information presented was dense and detailed, but also because the ideas conveyed were healthily challenging to my own beliefs and surprisingly relevant for a work on politics written twenty years ago. Some things I have not agreed with, some things I have conceded to, and some things I will need time to mull over. A common theme in this work is the assertion that ethics must begin with descriptions (for example, to distinguish the freedom fighter from the terrorist implies the need for descriptive concepts), and all of this revolves around the definition of political authority viewed through the lens of the reign of God, focusing on political actions rather than political institutions or systems. This will be a read I’ll need to come back to to fully grasp.
“It is not, as is often suggested, that Christian political order is a project of the church’s mission, either as an end it itself or as a means to the further missionary end. The church’s one project is to witness to the Kingdom of God. Christendom is a response to mission, and as such a sign that God has blessed it. It is constituted not by the church’s seizing alien power, but by alien power’s becoming attentive to the church.”
7.4/10
“It is not, as is often suggested, that Christian political order is a project of the church’s mission, either as an end it itself or as a means to the further missionary end. The church’s one project is to witness to the Kingdom of God. Christendom is a response to mission, and as such a sign that God has blessed it. It is constituted not by the church’s seizing alien power, but by alien power’s becoming attentive to the church.”
7.4/10
January 18, 2020
A comprehensive history of Christian political ideas that starts with Biblical Israel and concludes with modernity. It is a highly important book that leads to few conclusions. Before his remarkable treatment of St John of Patmos’ political theology, the ODonovan’s style is a study in vagueness. One suspects that he sought not to overcommit to the tribal theology of Israel and its continuation into early Christianity. However his chapters on the formation of the church in contrast to the state in the fourth and fifth centuries are superb. He ends with the largely Calvinist view that “the most Christian government is that which knows it is secular”, that knows that the kingdom is already at hand and its only ruler is not me, but Christ. Interestingly, this Anglican theologian places the post-Christian age as beginning with the Declaration of Independence. The prohibition of a state Church means that the ecclesial does not nourish the secular. Thought there there is little to offer Orthodox seekers of a political theology, there is much to offer theology readers in general.
April 30, 2024
Stunning, incredible, essential - these are just a few of the adjectives I would use to describe this work. O'Donovan avoids the simplistic pitfalls that often attend political theology and offers a more complex and thus biblical faithful picture of political theology in deep conversation with the political and moral traditions. If you or someone you know is desiring to have a more theologically and philosophically robust approach to political theory, this is one of the first books you should read. Is it easy or light reading? No. But it is substantive and a feast! I would place this in the top ten books I've ever read.
April 25, 2018
My gosh, this was confusing. Even reading it IN A CLASS and having done a presentation on it (and receiving feedback from other students that of all the presentations, they "learned the most" from ours) I am pretty much at a loss with regards to what question it's trying to answer, and therefore, what answer it gives.
It was something about the tension between God and government. I have it on good authority that this is a brilliant work of genius, but it went over my head.
It was something about the tension between God and government. I have it on good authority that this is a brilliant work of genius, but it went over my head.
February 6, 2019
Very challenging and thought provoking book. Still need to process everything O' Donavan suggests in the book. I thought his effort to build a political theology from the ground up using the OT Scriptures and the resurrection was largely successful. I know there are some gems that I've missed, since James K. A. Smith reviews this book in part in his book Awaiting the King. Not an easy read, but worth while!
July 8, 2024
I do think that O'Donovan is almost certainly right. I'd like to be clever enough to give it 5 stars. But he does make it so very difficult to understand what he's actually saying. Obfuscatedly brilliant. Three stars.
(PS - thankful for Jonathan Leeman's heroics in putting this into plain English in his book, Authority).
(PS - thankful for Jonathan Leeman's heroics in putting this into plain English in his book, Authority).
February 28, 2022
His writing is so dense as to nearly be opaque. Tedious yet incredibly insightful. If you only read chapters 6 & 7 you will save alot of time but still glean much. Neither a defense nor a critique of Christendom, but rather a sympathetic understanding of what happened (ix).
June 16, 2017
Profound.
February 4, 2018
Let someone like James K.A. Smith rewrite this book to make it palatable to the lay reader and it'd be fantastic.
August 14, 2020
Lots to disagree with, but profoundly insightful and even moving in places. Not the first place to go for political theology, but an important contribution.
partially-read
October 15, 2020Read "The triumph of the Kingdom" for Modern Doctrine.
August 21, 2014
I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, O'Donovan is clearly brilliant, and I underlined an extraordinary amount of good lines which I will surely return to many times. But the book was also incredibly difficult to follow. The biggest problem was the lack of any overarching structure to the book. Perhaps it was simply above my level, but even compared to other very complex works, this one utterly failed to connect one thought to the next, much less one chapter to the next. I do not think I could clearly state the main point(s) of this work without considerable re-reading, and even then I'm not sure if I could.
A strange form contributed to this lack of cohesion. O'Donovan switches back and forth between his main text and what at first the reader may think are long block quotes. In reality, these passages are not quotes but rather lengthy asides or (in effect) huge footnotes in the text, which themselves can go on for several pages and rival the main text in length throughout the book. Sometimes these sections are just as important as the main text, but not always. Why anyone would choose to write in this fashion is beyond me, and it is a huge hindrance to any sense of continuity in O'Donovan's ideas.
So 3 stars for depth and insight but downgraded due to unreadability. Should O'Donovan collaborate with someone who can more clearly express ideas and tie them all together, I would suspect his books would have a much greater impact.
A strange form contributed to this lack of cohesion. O'Donovan switches back and forth between his main text and what at first the reader may think are long block quotes. In reality, these passages are not quotes but rather lengthy asides or (in effect) huge footnotes in the text, which themselves can go on for several pages and rival the main text in length throughout the book. Sometimes these sections are just as important as the main text, but not always. Why anyone would choose to write in this fashion is beyond me, and it is a huge hindrance to any sense of continuity in O'Donovan's ideas.
So 3 stars for depth and insight but downgraded due to unreadability. Should O'Donovan collaborate with someone who can more clearly express ideas and tie them all together, I would suspect his books would have a much greater impact.
June 5, 2014
Amazing and thought-provoking book, though pretty challenging for me too. This book has paragraphs that, ideally, would be entire books in their own right, and then maybe I would understand them better. But there are some really indispensable thoughts here as well.
July 10, 2012
Stirring political theology.
partially-read-reference
July 12, 2016Mentioned in Living at the Crossroads, by Michael W. Goheen and Graig G. Bartholomew.
June 23, 2016
Flipping brilliant. What a great book.
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