Theology and Political Action

As a Christian theologian and a citizen of a state, the United States of America, I find myself subject to the rule of God and to the rule of the state. I face a call for allegiance and commitment to a political entity or terrestrial kingdom, while at the same time I am called to serve the kingdom of God and follow Jesus as Lord. Mandates and calls to action and devotion press in on the disciple of Christ from a number of directions and sources. Many voices, ideas, personages, and organizations vie for our allegiance and commitment. Being under a number of mandates is not in itself a bad thing, and these mandates don't necessarily have to be in conflict. What is terribly important is that they be distinguished, evaluated, and rightly ordered. Above all, we must ever keep in mind that Caesar is not God and God is not Caesar. Caesar and all the citizenry should know this, but the person who claims to be a disciple of Christ must know and remember this.

A. A multitude of mandates

It is not surprising that several mandates and imperatives are directed at every human being. This follows from the fact that the individual belongs to or is a member of several groups at one and the same time. This multiple-membership may even be viewed as concentric circles or contexts surrounding the individual. These circles of obligation and responsibility are not necessarily mutually exclusive options or alternatives. What is crucial is that the mandates encountered be kept in proper focus, ordered theologically and according to the dictates of Christ. Radical devotion to Christ precludes the same kind of devotion to any other person, institution, or principle, but the former hardly precludes such as concern for one's neighbor and family. The former clearly demands the latter. Authentic worship of God does not negate but rather demands political and social responsibility and involvement. Truly responsible citizenship presupposes true religion, the right worship of God and radical commitment to his kingdom. Any mandate, whatever it's source, which conflicts with this right worship and radical commitment must be repudiated.

When a voice or a call addresses me demanding my full and ultimate allegiance, I must be certain that it is a mandate from him who alone is ultimate. Only when one comes to a recognition of the truly ultimate can one deal responsibly, prophetically, and critically with all that which finds its place in the realm of the finite. In this connection, Paul Tillich's provocative Protestant Principle comes to mind. This powerful and fundamental principle demands that the ultimate and the finite be not confused. God and man must never be confused. Every finite imperative that seeks to usurp the divine imperative must be radically rejected. The demands of men and the demands of God may on occasion even approximate one another, but they must never be confused. Let God be God. Let man be man.

Before focusing our attention on the theological mandate for social action and reform I should like to cite briefly some other mandates. All of the latter are subordinate to the theological mandate. Above all other mandates, but still subordinate to the theological, is the ethical imperative or mandate. For the Christian disciple the ethical imperatives are really the commands of God. These include the ten commandments, Christ's moral injunctions, Paul's ethical exhortations, and other Biblical demands. Here Dietrich Bonhoeffer's talk about costly discipleship comes to mind. There has been enough talk about values and ideals in general. American citizens talk about traditional American values on the assumption that everybody knows what is intended. We talk rather glibly about instilling values in our young people. The Christian is not finally called to respond to what may be called a set of values and ideals, he is called to follow Jesus as Savior and Lord. But even the call to discipleship has its roots in God's own gracious and redemptive acts.

Mandates and claims also arise in the political and civil spheres. Politicians talk about having received a mandate from the people. The governed and those who govern talk about the law of the land, and the latter is often given ultimate status. Citizens also speak of constitutional and statutory mandates. Nations make appeal to international law and treaties that have been made. I have no quarrel with civil and statutory law as such. Given the fact of human fallenness, I clearly recognize the need for government and society under law. However, I do reject the notion that these fruits of human legislation are infallibly true and right. Everything under God is subject to his will and judgment.

Mandates and calls to action also issue forth from traditions, customs, and cultural patterns. They may be unwritten, but they still press in upon us. It's conceivable that some of them may even call us to redemptive action and social reform. However, appeal is often made to custom and tradition in order to support and preserve the status quo. This is not to say that things could not be worse than they are. But can it ever be said that the state of human affairs could not be better? For our present purpose enough attention has been devoted to the multitude of mandates that impinge on the human being. I wish now to focus briefly on the theological mandate for social action and reform. This theological mandate is grounded in a theological indicative. The Christian ethical imperative springs forth from a theological indicative.

B. The theological mandate

The primary and final call to action for a Christian is no constitutional mandate, no lofty principle, and no categorical imperative or moral postulate. The Christian's call to redemptive action and involvement in society comes straight from the being, power, and acts of God. Redemption is truly and finally a divine activity and process. He who has liberated, who now liberates, and who will continue to liberate his world from evil is God himself. For the disciple of Jesus Christ this redemptive action lies at the very heart of human history and cosmic process. I believe that God's plans and action are both radical and cosmic. The scope and focus of divine deliverance and salvation is much more expansive and extensive than the myopic vision of many who have professed to be Christian. God has acted throughout man's past to liberate the many facets of his creation from evil. Salvation in the Christian setting includes liberation from evil, reconciliation, healing, forgiveness, restoration, and renewal. Divine salvation involves considerably more than the rescue and preservation of the human soul for a state of glory and bliss beyond death. Salvation to eternal life is a vital part of but not the whole story of divine salvation.

What lies within the orbit of God's redemptive and saving activity? Can it ever rightly be said that there is a segment of finite reality that lies beyond the bounds of divine love and judgment? Is the lordship of Christ restricted to a particular corner of the cosmos? The Kingdom of God comes breaking into our time and space and demands that Christians focus their efforts and attention on this same time and space. Salvation, as rightly understood in the Christian context, is not a salvaging of parts of a lost and repudiated world. Jesus did not pray that his disciples be whisked out of the world, but he did pray that they be kept from evil. The whole human being is certainly the object of salvation, but so are families, societies, institutions, culture, and the earth with its flora and fauna. The purpose of salvation is not to free souls from bodies, spirits from matter, individuals from society, so-called good people from bad people, and the eternal from the temporal. These dualisms echo very old heresies and have no place in a Christian understanding of salvation. The total human self, the earth, whole societies, and social structures merit and need transformation and renovation.

A powerful mandate arises from the theological state of affairs described above. If we fail to see the fullness of salvation we may very easily become impediments in the redemptive process. It is narrowness of vision, not true breadth of vision, that has led members of the Christian community to stand in God's way. There was a time when one named Jonah was such an impediment, and there was a time in the life of the apostle Peter when he stood in God's way. What Christians ought and must do, here and now, is prescribed by divine action in the past, present, and future.

C. The Christian response

The divine acts of liberation described above do not call for retreat, for passivism, nor for presumptuous activism. In response to the divine mandate the Christian disciple must refuse to take either of the following diverging paths. One of these involves withdrawal from the complex and intractable mainstream of one's society in order to retreat to some so-called holy place. Here preparation is made for one's personal exit from the earthly scene. Here one may simply await passively God's consummation of his plan. Spiritual retreat and quiet expectation do have their place in Christian discipleship, but all facets of discipleship must be kept in focus.

Those taking the above path bring to mind a fearful band of survivors waiting to be rescued. These fail to see that the thrust of the Gospel is a turning towards the world and spheres of human activity, not a turning from the latter. In this turning towards the world redemption occurs and God is praised.

Another path to be avoided by the Christian is markedly different from the path just cited. Those pursuing this path place inordinate emphasis on the human place and role in the redemptive process. The latter would seem to be almost wholly dependent on human ingenuity, ideology, and achievement. In such a view there appears to be a confusion of what God does and what man is able to achieve. Has God so totally delegated the work of salvation to mankind that God himself is finally little more than an observer? Has God abandoned his creation and left it for mankind to redeem? Or has God so radically emptied himself into human form that we must now declare that man is God? Is everything now left up to us? On such a view one can expect a great deal of feverish human activity marked by fanaticism and in the end disillusionment.

The theological mandate calls the Christian to another way. He is called to radical faith as well as faithful participation in God's liberating activity. The human self cannot and will not save the cosmos, however, he can be and is used as a participating agent in God's saving action. God redeems and renews in and through his servants. He has acted decisively and efficaciously in Jesus Christ, the Lord of the cosmos. But it must be strongly emphasized that God's creative and redemptive work in the world has hot ended, it continues in our time and will continue on into the future. He has chosen to save, redeem, and heal human beings through whom he also redeems human relationships, social structures, political life, and our physical environment as well. According to the Bible we are to be both recipients and instruments of salvation in all its fullness and breadth. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "For we are fellow workmen for God; you are God's field, God's building." (I Cor. 3:9 RSV) The Christian response to the theological mandate is multifaceted, a coat of many colors. To set forth the salvation of souls and the salvation of society as mutually exclusive options is to fly in the face of what the Bible teaches. God works in and through his creation and creatures in sundry and often mysterious ways. We are called to receive, to participate in, to witness to, and to await, in hope, divine salvation.

D. The character of Christian social and political action

Christian social and political action are crucial facets of the Christian response to the theological mandate. This response includes study, the devotional life, worship, witness, suffering, and concrete social and political action as well. All these activities must be kept in focus and held in perspective. They must be integrated in the practice of authentic discipleship. The Christian community is, of course, made up of individuals with their differences in gifts and opportunities. Each disciple has special tasks to perform and specific challenges to meet. Nevertheless, every follower of Christ must be aware of and concerned about each and every activity included in Christian discipleship. Our present concern is Christian action in the social and political spheres.

The character of the Christian response in the social and political arenas is dictated by both Christian beliefs or axioms and present circumstances. No attempt will be made here to spell out all these beliefs and all the varying situations we may encounter. In any case, fundamental Christian beliefs should not be foreign to a coalition of Christians. Moreover, the theological landscape surveyed earlier should already give us a fairly good insight into the character of Christian social action and reform. With respect to our social and political environment we face considerable variation and differences as we pass through time and space. However, in the midst of complexity and change the theological axioms and mandate abide and continue to challenge us.

Christian strategy and action in society should be marked by flexibility, diversity, and freedom; the transcendent and free character of divine grace plus the ambiguous and complex character of human society demand flexibility both in policy and in procedure. The disciple of Christ should never give his full and ultimate allegiance to any political ideology, social dogma, or hidebound schemes. The boundaries of Christian social action and reforming activity are fixed by the character of God's love, grace, and judgment. The Christian does not simply do whatever he or she pleases, for there are boundaries beyond which the Christian may not go. Too many ungodly acts have been perpetrated in God's name and for his sake. To invoke the name of God requires no Herculean effort or stroke of genius. What is required is humble conformity to God's will and his redemptive action.

Flexibility marks the types and courses of action open to Christian individuals and groups of Christians. A divine message received by Jeremiah should be cited here: "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant" (Jeremiah 1:9b, 10 RSV). Diversity of strategy and action is clearly called for. There is that time and place when refusal, rejection, and repudiation are required. One situation calls for protest, another for judicial or legislative action. There are times when Christian discipleship may demand civil disobedience and its consequences. Political proposals, legislation, and amendments to existing laws may be redemptive in character. Where such is the case, the Christian and groups of Christians should give their endorsement. There is a need for both breaking down and a building up. Certain policies and practices must be uprooted and others need to be planted. There is a time to resist, but there is also a time to promote and encourage. In one particular setting, submission may be the most redemptive course of action, in another, resistance or revolution.

Within the boundaries set by the theological mandate and Christian beliefs, the disciple of Christ must be flexible and free to pursue any one of a number of courses of action. As one who is called to be a prophet, priest, and king, the Christian must decide which of these callings or tasks is to have the priority in a particular situation. By the grace of God the Christian is set free for involvement in social action that is truly redemptive. The precise course of action to be pursued by the Christian can not always be delineated and circumscribed in advance. Through prayer, devotion, and commitment the Christian must develop a mature sensitivity to divine guidance and the theological mandate. Having been liberated by the grace of God, the disciple of Jesus Christ is free to participate further in God's liberating and reforming action in society and the world.

When this article appeared, Robert J. Palma taught theology in the department of Religion at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.