Security after Christendom: Global Politics and Political Theology for Apocalyptic Times

Front Cover
Wipf and Stock Publishers, Feb 13, 2024 - Religion - 364 pages
We live in the wealthiest and most heavily defended world in history, so why do we feel so insecure? In a secular world, what does Christian theology have to say about this problem? Security after Christendom combines practical examples, social scientific research, and an ecumenical approach to political theology to answer these questions. It argues that Christendom was a plural phenomenon of imagined security communities of East and West whose unravelling continues to have implications for global politics today, as dramatically illustrated by Russia’s war in Ukraine. While notions of a new Christendom are idolatrous and delusional, secular imaginaries of national security or the liberal international order are both destructive and unstable. True security—radical inclusion, nonviolent protection, and abundant provision—is an eschatological phenomenon, inaugurated by Christ. Security after Christendom is neither found in faithful government nor an exclusive church-as-polis approach but in relations of tension where the fallen powers are continuously confronted by prophetic practices. A post-Christendom community expresses its love for the world by seeking its security, providentially limiting the disorders of the secular age, and offering glimmers of a new earth.
 

Contents

Christendom and Security
31
Conflicting Geographies
54
Fading Theories
73
Retreating Ethics
94
Global Politics after Christendom
115
Insecurities of the Security State
136
Disorders of the Liberal International Order
160
Idolatries of NeoChristendom
181
A Theology of Security
203
Radical Inclusion
226
Nonviolent Protection
247
Abundant provision
273
Conclusion
295
Bibliography
309
Index
339
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About the author (2024)

John Heathershaw is professor of international relations at the University of Exeter and a doctoral student at Bristol Baptist College. He is co-author of Dictators without Borders (2017).

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