In the wake of recent events in the U.S.-American political climate, the Church finds herself (once again) at a crossroads – a critical opportunity to rethink her theological hermeneutic regarding the State. Let the reader understand, this is nothing new, and the “eschatology” in the title of this paper has nothing to do with some kind of unprecedented irruption of “End Times” events. In other words, our recent election is only tangentially related to our topic here. Rather, the Church has a lengthy and turbulent relationship with what may be termed Christian anarchism. This idea has little to no connection to the popular – and negative – impressions of that second word. Instead, it is a provocative term for a broad group of thinkers throughout our ecclesial history who have been willing to follow the phrase “Jesus is Lord” to its ultimate conclusions. In essence, Christian anarchism is a consistent and thoroughgoing application of “No king but Jesus” that results in a mistrust of the State’s ability, rooted as it is in violence and hierarchy, with the Kingdom vision.
The “eschatology” of Christian anarchism relates to its nature as the tactic of the Church as she must exist in the penultimate chapter of history – that is, the Christian existence as “end times disciples” in the eschatological era which extends from Christ’s ascension through to his return (from ascent to advent, if you please). We have always been “end times disciples,” and many thinkers have recognized the obligation of the Church to a counter-cultural stance vis-à-vis human government. We will draw on the insights of a broad range of contemporary brothers and sisters such as Jacques Ellul, Dorothy Day, Leo Tolstoy, Shane Claiborne, Vernard Eller, Bill Cavanaugh, and John Howard Yoder, as well as find continuity with early Church Fathers such as Tertullian, in pursuit of a politically topical answer to that timeless question: How then shall we live?
The full paper is attached to this post.
