Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies

by N.T. Wright

We are contending that an ideal state has its freedoms and obligations tethered to something transcendent yet translatable. A state anchored in a particular story with universal relevance. A state authority that knows it is not and never should try to be almighty, combined with a citizenry that aspires to civic virtue. In such a settlement, even with a secular constitution, one may appeal to sustaining traditions and narratives such as those supplied by religion to enable a comprehensive suite of freedoms and safeguards against tyranny and anarchy. A state that seeks to be just needs a coherent and compelling justification for the rights and responsibilities of its citizens which is rooted in something bigger than themselves and even beyond themselves. Also, such a state needs common convictions about who humans are, something like creatures bearing the ‘image of God’ who share ‘one stock’,7 in other words, a political anthropology that explains universal human value.