[[Christian Spirituality]] / Political Theology and Power > [!note] New - 2026-03-26 ![[assets/covers/political-theology-and-power.jpg]] Political theology in a Christian context must wrestle with a fundamental confusion: the equation of Christendom (Christian political dominion) with God’s kingdom, and the assumption that divine authority is secured or expressed through Christian military and economic power. This confusion shapes both how Christians in the West wield authority and how those suffering under that authority perceive Christian witness itself. ## Christendom and the Kingdom of God The most dangerous theological error in political theology is the assumption that when Christians control, God controls. The question demands sharp articulation: are we assuming that a defeat to Christendom is a defeat to God and to his kingdom; that when Christians are in control, God is also in control[^jabbour-crescent-p54]? This confusion runs deep in Western Christian thought. The explicit theological challenge (drawn from Gregory Boyd’s work) is to distinguish the kingdom of God from any earthly political regime, including explicitly Christian ones. ## Political Contexts and Christian Witness The geopolitical use of power by Christian nations fundamentally shapes how the Gospel is heard in other cultural contexts. When Christians in the Global North wield military force and nations must cooperate with such power under threat of regional suffering, the perception of Christian witness becomes entangled with political domination[^jabbour-crescent-p52]. Those in positions of powerlessness grow frustrated; they see the mechanism by which the powerful maintain their advantage and recognise that the only audible voice available to the dispossessed is the one that disrupts the order itself[^jabbour-crescent-p51]. The disillusionment runs deeper still. When those who once resisted religious extremism (seeing it as fundamentally at odds with human flourishing) begin to sympathise with movements that at least resist foreign domination, the problem is not their conversion to extremism but the appearance of American power as boundless and unchecked since the Cold War’s end[^jabbour-crescent-p48]. The theological error of Christendom becomes a lived crisis when those in the Middle East ask what God’s kingdom has to do with American military hegemony. ## Structural Violence and Moral Judgement Political theology must also expose the double standard embedded in how the same action is named differently depending on who performs it. An Israeli soldier defending territory is called a defender of democracy; a Palestinian using his only available weapon, his body, to resist occupation is called a terrorist. Yet the question pierces the moral language: if Samson is honoured in Scripture for using his body as a weapon, on what theological grounds does the same act become terrorism when performed by the dispossessed[^jabbour-crescent-p40]? The inconsistency is not accidental; it reveals that the moral categories themselves have been shaped by the interests of those in power. This structural violence (the power to name actions, to determine which deaths matter, to distinguish defence from terrorism based on political affiliation) is the deepest expression of political theology gone wrong. ## Selected passages > ‘Jordanians had to cooperate with America, or else the whole region would suffer as a result of the 1991 and 2003 Iraq ==wars. My father is not surprised at all at the increasing hatred toward America and by how== easy it has become to recruit terrorists.’ > > *The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross*, p. 52 > ‘==No wonder people in the Middle East are attracted to political terrorism, using violence to attract the attention of the world to their grievances. This was the only way they can made their “vote” count and let the world know that their opinions matter.==’ > > *The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross*, p. 51 ## Appearances - *The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross*, Jabbour, Nabeel T. - Chapter 3 Ahmad’s Worldview, pp. 51–40 ## Related [[Kingdom of God]] . [[Christendom]] . [[Justice and Concern for the Vulnerable]] . [[Gospel Proclamation]] . [[Ethics of Power and Leadership]] [^jabbour-crescent-p54]: [[The Crescent through the Eyes of the Cross]], p. 54 . ‘Are we assuming that a defeat to Christendom is a defeat to God and to his kingdom? Do we assume that when Christians are in control, God is also in control? [...] One of my sources on the kingdom of God is a controversial book by Gregory Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation.’ [^jabbour-crescent-p52]: Ibid., p. 52 . ‘Jordanians had to cooperate with America, or else the whole region would suffer as a result of the 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars. My father is not surprised at all at the increasing hatred toward America and by how easy it has become to recruit terrorists.’ [^jabbour-crescent-p51]: Ibid., p. 51 . ‘No wonder people in the Middle East are attracted to political terrorism, using violence to attract the attention of the world to their grievances. This was the only way they can made their “vote” count and let the world know that their opinions matter.’ [^jabbour-crescent-p48]: Ibid., p. 48 . ‘I have seen in him a growing frustration and an alarming change in his thinking. In the past he used to be very much against Islamic fundamentalism, but now he is more sympathetic with those views and he admires their courage. He pointed out that since the collapse of the Soviet Union and […]’ [^jabbour-crescent-p40]: Ibid., p. 40 . ‘If an American Jewish young man leaves this country, goes to Israel and upon his arrival obtains the Israeli citizenship. He volunteers to serve with the Israeli army, and with his machine gun kills Palestinians as he occupies their land, you do not perceive him as a terrorist. No doubt this is […]’