In a lecture hall filled with young Christian minds and faculty from a variety of disciplines, a dialogue emerges which is often fraught with landmines, tension and polarization in today’s society. In this www.亚洲色 lecture hall, however, students and faculty are exploring Christian nationalism with thoughtful nuance rooted in Scripture.
On this particular day late last fall, a faculty panel came together from history, political science and religion and theology because two students wished to engage鈥揳nd encourage their fellow students to engage鈥搃n this timely, though often divisive topic. It鈥檚 just one of the ways that the university helps students exercise critical thought before heading out into the world to reflect Christ鈥檚 love in every career and calling.
Anne Jan, a fourth-year English literature student, conceived of the idea last fall after sensing fellow students, and society in general, becoming more tribal. 鈥淚 believe that the only way to bring unity, and even respect for differences, is to have clarifying discussions. Most big questions can’t be reduced to binaries, let alone the political left or right. As people increasingly consume data from algorithms that reinforce their biases, they aren’t hearing a well-rounded, nuanced perspective.鈥
She and fellow student Erika Wildervanck co-moderated a panel of faculty experts from a variety of disciplines. 鈥淭hese kinds of interdisciplinary events are one of my favourite things about Redeemer,鈥 says Wildervanck, a third-year English literature and philosophy double major. 鈥淚t really showcases how all-encompassing the Christian worldview can be if we approach it in the right way.鈥
鈥淚 believe that the only way to bring unity, and even respect for differences, is to have clarifying discussions.”
While the Christian nationalism discussion is a timely and hot topic, the university isn’t just debating the role of faith in politics; its faculty are actively helping to define the role of faith in some of society鈥檚 most pressing issues through research and scholarship that spans history, ethics and political science.
Church and State: The Bigger Picture
With Christian nationalism sparking much debate and discussion, many Christians have been prompted to think more deeply about the relationship between church and state and what role Christians should play in the political sphere.
Dr. Kevin Flatt, associate dean of humanities and professor of history, believes faith and politics must not be divided for Christians. 鈥淎s Christians we need to think about Christ鈥檚 Lordship as extending to the political sphere, and insofar as we are entrusted with a political role as citizens who can engage in voting and other political activities, we should conduct those the way that Jesus would have us conduct them,” says Flatt. 鈥淗e is the Lamb of God, he鈥檚 King over everything; that includes the political sphere. When we pray that his kingdom would come and his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, we don鈥檛 just exempt the political sphere from our desire for that.鈥
Some see increased Christian political engagement as one response to growing secularization in the West. Flatt has taken a deep dive on secularization, approaching his research from a broader global and historical perspective. His work on the topic led him to launch a new book, . He says in his experience teaching students about world history he has faced limitations with the category of religion. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 transfer well to other times and places,鈥 says Flatt. 鈥淚t is specifically a modern Western category used in the last 200 to 300 years. It鈥檚 not a cultural universal. In these kinds of situations it confuses us. We think, 鈥楽hould politics be influenced by religion?鈥 and we have this category of religion that includes some things, but then hides a whole bunch of other value systems, worldviews, moral assumptions and cosmographic formations (ways of accounting for the cosmos) that we just don鈥檛 have to label as religion. It kind of hides them from the conversation.鈥
Instead, in his book, he explores the concepts of sacred and secular social orders. A social order is the way a society organizes and structures its common life together鈥搃ts laws, social customs, what鈥檚 right and wrong, time (including its calendar and what dates are important), space (the cosmos, the planning of cities and homes), and domains of activity including government, education and family life, which includes marriage, sexuality and child rearing.
鈥淚n all premodern societies for which we have information, the social order relates to something above it, something suprahuman,鈥 says Flatt. 鈥淚t鈥檚 meant to conform or mirror that super power.鈥 These societies, he says, had sacred social orders, looking to God, spirits, ancestors or some other source of order above humans for their structure, meaning and purpose. In a sacred social order, the sacred and social align. In a secular order, structure and meaning is not legitimized by suprahuman considerations, but by purely human considerations鈥揾uman values and priorities鈥揳s the basis for what is right and wrong, family life and government.
鈥淧art of the confusion that stems from our categories of religious and secular is that we tend to assume that a secular political order is value-neutral. But I don鈥檛 think it is. It doesn鈥檛 reference suprahuman authorities to give it legitimacy and direction, but it references other kinds of ultimate values, which might be individual autonomy, equality, the nation鈥搕here are more individualistic and collective versions of secular order鈥揵ut like political orders that do appeal to something above the human, secular political orders likewise have to wrestle with these questions of what legitimates government authority, where it derives its authority from and what it should do with the authority that it has.鈥
Christians must bear some amount of responsibility as those who believe in Christ鈥檚 redeeming power and Lordship in this world. 鈥淎s Christians, insofar as we are involved in exercising government authority鈥揺ven if it鈥檚 just voting鈥搘e are engaging with questions of: 鈥榃here does the state get its authority?鈥, 鈥榃hat are the legitimate limits of state authority?鈥, and 鈥榃hat should states do with the authority that they have?鈥 I would submit that these questions are inescapable,鈥 says Flatt.
鈥淭he enemies we fight today should be our partners in reconciliation tomorrow.”
Education Rooted in Scripture
These questions aren’t just for academic publications; they are key questions explored throughout the curriculum in various disciplines. Dr. Jonathan Loopstra, professor of history, teaches a wide variety of courses in history that cover everything from the earliest days of Christianity and early Christians鈥 engagement with the Roman Empire, to a post-Constantinian view of the topic. In the second-year Church History course, students learn about the persecution of the early church by the state and how the medieval church authorities like the pope engaged with the state. In the upper-year Modern Middle East course, students explore how Christians living in the Islamic world engage with authorities. 鈥淭hat encompasses a huge span of different ideas about Christianity and the political world,鈥 says Loopstra. He鈥檚 also teaching a fourth-year course on Culture and Conflict in Modern Africa. The Christian church is large and growing in Africa. More than half of the course explores how Christians in Africa participate in politics. 鈥淚n that course we have advanced readings on local African church leaders and how they think Christians should engage in developing democracies in Africa.鈥
The most in-depth course on church and politics is a third-year course called From Irenaeus to Grotius: Christian Political Thought based on a book by Oliver O’Donovan and Joan Lockwood-O’Donovan. 鈥淚t鈥檚 basically primary source readings from the earliest church through the Enlightenment about how a variety of different Christian thinkers understood how we as Christian citizens should engage with
the political world,鈥 says Loopstra. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very unique course that Redeemer offers because it allows us as Christians to see how the very views that we hold today in Canada and in the West about church and state developed across all these centuries with major differences between East and West.鈥
鈥淚 want students to know that the stuff we鈥檙e talking about, the stuff that we鈥檙e studying, really does connect with real life.”
Loopstra says students have aha moments when they begin to see where the things that they always assumed to be true actually developed in the history of the church. 鈥淔or example, we can go back in time and we can look at the Reformation and read Calvin, the Huguenots or John Knox. Students have these moments where they can see how these ideas developed that they take for granted.鈥
When students look at the Eastern churches, Loopstra says many taking these classes have a moment of clarity when they can see what it was like for Christians not to live as a majority religion with its equally attendant majority culture, but to live as a minority under a state that was sometimes antithetical to Christian beliefs. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just not used to that in modern Canada.鈥
The Ethics of Power
While Flatt鈥檚 research deals with social orders and Loopstra鈥檚 courses trace history, professor of politics and international studies Dr. Robert Joustra鈥檚 most recent work focuses on the ethics of political conflict. If the political sphere is never truly value-neutral, the question becomes: How do we exercise power and seek justice today?
In a book co-edited with Eric Patterson and titled , Joustra and other scholars explore ethical frameworks for determining if war is morally justifiable and how it should be fought. Through a just war theory framework, the book, which looks at recent conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza鈥揳s well as much older conflicts鈥揻ocuses on the concept of “likelihood of success,” recognizing that there are challenges with it when determining whether a particular conflict is morally justified.
鈥淭he criteria for 鈥榣ikelihood of success鈥 are not always right,鈥 said Joustra at a recent book launch event. 鈥淲e think we understand more than we do [but] fallibility is just a human trait. This idea that we鈥檙e going to put a number on it and name the outcome is a dangerous thing.鈥
Joustra references Jesus鈥 parables in Luke 14:28-32 about building a tower and a king going to war. Determining the likelihood of success assumes we can make a calculation of the outcomes like building a tower, when in reality, Joustra says, there is an inherent unpredictive element to war. Jesus’ example speaks to taking wise deliberation and consideration of whether to engage in conflict or ask for terms of peace.
But Joustra feels there is value in using the likelihood of success framework if what is meant by success is 鈥渢hickly Augustinian.鈥
鈥淛ust war is a practice of love, a way we turn [a people group] from the evil they are committing back to a better justice,鈥 says Joustra. 鈥淭he enemies we fight today should be our partners in reconciliation tomorrow. Success is not blowing up stuff, it鈥檚 about the arc towards a just peace.鈥
As Joustra states in the book鈥檚 introduction, the framework of just war articulated in the Christian tradition by Augustine and Aquinas, 鈥渉as found its way into the doctrine of states, international law and moral and legal covenants.鈥
Serving the Church
Christian nationalism isn’t just a buzzword鈥攊t’s a conversation happening amidst real-world volatility. Another Redeemer faculty member finds himself being called upon to speak into this cultural moment because of his strong research interests at the intersection of faith and politics. Dr. James Wood, associate professor of religion and theology, has recently been appointed to a committee of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) that has been asked to provide a report on Christian nationalism, its intersection with the denomination鈥檚 doctrine and pastoral guidance for those who may need to provide counsel to congregants on the topic. Having served as a pastor in the PCA in Texas nearly a decade ago, he now finds himself contributing to this conversation.
鈥淧eople want to talk about it. I鈥檝e been invited as a speaker at multiple conferences over the next nine months and they鈥檙e all about Christian nationalism. Everybody wants to talk about that,鈥 says Wood. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of confusion especially for pastors. [The committee鈥檚] job is to basically resource pastors in this conversation. This means we will not tackle every relevant question, rather working from within our confessional boundaries we will be addressing these primary questions: What do we need to say about this topic at this time? What positions promoted by contemporary advocates are out of bounds with regard to our confessional documents? I think that鈥檚 how we鈥檙e trying to serve the church, trying to serve our pastors, giving them a summary of what this discourse is about, what the term actually means, who the main players are, what they are promoting.鈥
鈥淢ost Christians have realized that while they are citizens of heaven, they also have responsibilities as citizens on this earth.”
Citizens of Heaven and Earth
As political realities shift and change at a pace that can feel jarring at times, Christians can rest in the hope of Christ鈥檚 return, making all things new. And students like Jan and Wildervanck can rely on their Redeemer education rooted in Scripture, and supported by faculty research and scholarship to walk into their careers with the nuance they need to engage well.
鈥淢ost Christians have realized that while they are citizens of heaven, they also have responsibilities as citizens on this earth,鈥 says Loopstra. “Even in the pre-Constantinian days we have these beautiful letters that talk about Christians as the soul of the world. They鈥檙e not entirely a part of it, they鈥檙e different, but they still have responsibilities as citizens.鈥 From the earliest days and through the Constantinian era, Christians prayed for the emperor, and engaged with their faith and politics. At the time of the Reformation, Luther contended that as Christians we are freed by the Gospel and citizens of heaven, yet at the same time we have responsibilities to act as citizens of this world.
鈥淗e is the Lamb of God, he鈥檚 King over everything; that includes the political sphere.”
What might that responsibility look like? Joustra says we must bear witness to Scripture while we do the work of politics. 鈥淲hat we shouldn’t do, because the Scriptures tell us we shouldn’t, is use the coercive power of the modern state to force upon citizenry that first table of the law (love and devotion to God). Doing so binds and violates their consciences鈥揳nd I think pretty much everyone in the Christian tradition would agree we can鈥檛 force people to be Christian. In the Calvinistic sense, we can鈥檛 take upon ourselves the power of God and his sovereignty to transform lives or even whole societies. That is for only one King and we wait for his return.鈥