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The Transfiguration of Politics
366 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 26, 2026
If there is a provisional place for the sword of the state, perhaps a moment comes when counterviolence is the provisional response to oppression. Even so, the transfiguration to patient humanism is still the vital insight.
In such a "miracle of transfiguration," they have "resisted the conversion of violence from a risk into a policy," taken a step "toward the patient persistence of revolutionary faithfulness," and "move[d] beyond iconoclasm and idolatry towsrd the regenerative vocation of supplication" (272).
It was hard for me to say what Lehmann meant by supplication, but I took it to mean an ever-new disposition of dependence on God which takes the form of genuine reciprocity and attentiveness to the other.
"When the transfiguration of which revolutions are a sign happens to revolutions in the making, revolution is liberated from itself for itself. The via dolorosa bypasses the via guillotina and enters the via humana humanorum directly" (278).
The question remains what that bypassing entails – and I suspect the interaction with Bonhoeffer and Cone might get us there – but I'll be thinking about this one for quite awhile.
In such a "miracle of transfiguration," they have "resisted the conversion of violence from a risk into a policy," taken a step "toward the patient persistence of revolutionary faithfulness," and "move[d] beyond iconoclasm and idolatry towsrd the regenerative vocation of supplication" (272).
It was hard for me to say what Lehmann meant by supplication, but I took it to mean an ever-new disposition of dependence on God which takes the form of genuine reciprocity and attentiveness to the other.
"When the transfiguration of which revolutions are a sign happens to revolutions in the making, revolution is liberated from itself for itself. The via dolorosa bypasses the via guillotina and enters the via humana humanorum directly" (278).
The question remains what that bypassing entails – and I suspect the interaction with Bonhoeffer and Cone might get us there – but I'll be thinking about this one for quite awhile.
December 20, 2025
The material on transfiguration and its humanizing effects are much needed, and should be taught widely. But where I can’t get on board is with the apocalypse of violence that Lehmann (carefully) advocates in the book’s concluding section.
To me, it reads like the inverse of Barth’s refusal to give an ultimate “Nein!” to the question of violence, yet what Barth is intentionally apophatic about—perhaps God may call us to use violence, but we cannot prescribe that—Lehmann is trying to demonstrate an account where violence is (again, carefully) wrapped up in the revolutionary work of humanization.
There’s much to be gleaned here, even if I remain unconvinced about the way the appeal to a particular kind of violence works.
To me, it reads like the inverse of Barth’s refusal to give an ultimate “Nein!” to the question of violence, yet what Barth is intentionally apophatic about—perhaps God may call us to use violence, but we cannot prescribe that—Lehmann is trying to demonstrate an account where violence is (again, carefully) wrapped up in the revolutionary work of humanization.
There’s much to be gleaned here, even if I remain unconvinced about the way the appeal to a particular kind of violence works.
May 15, 2024
A must read. I must read not only once but twice. Lehman's words written decades ago provide light for those of navigating the tumult of today within and without the Church. The biblical exegetical content wedded to sober reflection of politics provides a framework and a map for Christians trying to walk the precarious fine line between faith and praxis while coming face to face with violence (both coutnerrevolutionary violence and counter violence). Lehman's command of the history of liberation movements is impressive and adds a level of gravity to the discussion, anchoring it all in world as participant both in the spiritual and temporal realms. The Christian is the epicenter and through her there is yet another gospel articulation that is heard with the ears, seen with the eyes, and felt in the liberation of bodies held captive to dominant and prevailing ideologies.
July 24, 2011
Lehmann's original title for this was JESUS CHRIST AND THE QUESTION OF REVOLUTION. He explores in this book the tension between the visionary character of revolution and the messiness of the violence it brings in train.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews