Summary
Title: God And Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys
Author: Catherine Keller
Publisher: Augsburg Fortress
ISBN: 0800637275
Pro:
• Interesting analysis of the theological implications of Christian Right attitudes towards power
Con:
• Heavy use of concepts from feminist, post-modern theories which may turn some readers away
Description:
• Analysis of how the Christian Right has allied itself with neoconservative imperialists
• Argues that today’s Christian Right is far too concerned with power, control, and domination
Book Review
Ever since becoming the official religion of Rome, Christianity has worked hand-in-hand with political powers and principalities in order to assert a particular religious vision over all of society. What began as a religion focused more on service, submission, and independent witness became one more concerned with domination, control, and coercion.
Little enough has changed over the past two millennia, and now in America we are enveloped by a Christianity in which power is the focus of all things. For the Christian Right, the key principle underlying all domestic policy debates is that Christians like them once dominated and controlled American culture, politics, and society; today that domination and control have been lost, therefore Christians like them are being persecuted.
The ultimate goal of domestic policy issues, whether they involve abortion, homosexuality, or science, is to reestablish their former position of privilege and supremacy. When we come to international policy, however, the same arguments don’t work because they never possessed political domination to begin with. Their goal is instead to spread their unique brand of Christian nationalism — a form of conservative evangelical Christianity combined with American cultural values like radical individualism and market capitalism — across the globe in the guise of “liberation” and “democratization.”
In this manner, American Christians assert their “innocence” — persecuted at home, devoid of any intention other than to help others see the light and experience God as they do — even as they employ awesome military power to intimidate and invade, control and coerce, torture and terrorize. Key to their success — or perhaps it’s only the temporary illusion of success — has been the domestic political alliance of the Christian Right with neoconservatives under the umbrella of a ever-more authoritarian Republican Party.
Catherine Keller explores the theological background and political implications of this alliance in her book God And Power: Counter-Apocalyptic Journeys. The focus of her critique is the messianic attitudes of conservative evangelical Christians who simultaneously believe that they are forces for good even as they have aligned themselves with imperial power.
According to Keller, an important feature of the Christian Right’s perspective on international politics is their apocalyptic beliefs: the End Times are just around the corner, coming any day now, and America must be prepared. Beliefs about the End Times, for example, are central to the Christian Right’s position on Israel. Keller’s analysis of these beliefs and their relationship to American politics is both interesting and informative.
The key question which Keller addresses to the Christian Right, and which others should begin to ask, plays off of this belief: the central text in Christian apocalypticism is Revelations, and central to this text are the actions of the Beast, also known as the Antichrist. Opposed to Christ, the Beast couples with the Great Whore of Babylon, generally regarded as the coupling of evil with the Roman Empire.
Who, though, is the Roman Empire today if not America? In their own theo-political imagery, the Christian Right has arguably become a servant of the Great Whore and the Antichrist. Catherine Keller explains how and why, making her book a worthy read.
