Greetings and salutations. This is Life and Books and Everything. I'm Kevin DeYoung. I'm reading today my latest article in World Opinions. Be sure to check out World Opinions Online. This article is entitled, Does Christianity Transcend All Our Political Disagreements, Right and Wrong Ways to Think About Christianity and Politics. This is a continuing part of the series that I've been doing in world opinions, thinking about a number of different questions related to Christianity and politics. So here's the latest.

Americans are polarized by politics. Everyone recognizes that political differences in this country are deep and seem to be growing.

The division is present everywhere,

including in the church. Moreover, Christians don't just disagree on political principles or on a number

of political conclusions. Christians disagree on how Christianity and politics relate to each other

in the first place. In an essay, it's impossible to even begin to sketch a proper answer to such a massive topic, but maybe we can set a few planks in place, playing off of Richard Niebuhr's famous Christ and culture categories by noting what is right and wrong with four common approaches.

Number one, Christianity against politics. Christians with this approach are usually happy to blast both parties or all parties, if you have more than two.

They may believe that politics is important and that voting matters and that certain issues really matter, but Christianity is largely seen as something that stands opposed to the messy, often idolatrous world of politics.

On the positive side, this approach understands that the gospel of Christ is not mainly about

fixing the social order, and that the Bible was not written to lay out a political system.

The Christianity against politics approach is strong on warning Christians against putting

too much hope in kings

and in earthly kingdoms. On the negative side, Christians with this approach are often

uninterested in learning the intellectual contours of political science or in the long history

of moral philosophy. It can also be unrealistic about how political and social change happens.

Politics is about the art of the possible, which requires making the best out of a fallen world filled with sinful people and imperfect systems. 2. Christianity above politics.

In this approach, Christianity is seen as the truth, capital T, that transcends all earthly systems.

Christians with this approach are interested in the study of politics and in the various historical isms that have been tried in the political realm.

These Christians believe that the gospel provides the proper critique to all man-made systems of political, economic, and social

ordering. On the positive side, this approach understands that Christianity is not to be

identified with any particular political philosophy, political party, or intellectual tradition.

On the negative side, the gospel critiques can often be superficial and lead to a sloppy moral equivalence.

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