Prompt 29: August 1, 2023
Riley shared an article, reviewing the book A Case For Christian Nationalism, by Stephen Wolfe, which left me dumbfounded on how little I know of the political and spiritual history of America. This is not a prompt to expound on any single concept in the breadth of an idea like Christian Nationalism, so I’d like to open this topic up to our corporate interest in what it means to be a citizen, what it means to be subject to a nation, and how to follow Christ through both of those constraints. If Ode To Culture can be anything, I hope it is the place where these questions can be taken up. To help frame the conversation, I’ll lay out a few questions in the sheets below and we can use the continued discussion to fill those questions in with better questions, hopefully nearer an answer.
The thread is open. Create boldly, and may the Spirit guide us all
Advisors’ Comments:
Ryan Mayo
I have the Wolfe book, but there’s always something more important than reading it. I’d suggest reading Leithart’s approach (he wrote this in 2020, before Wolfe’s moment): https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/06/christian-nation-yes-and-no
Ultimately, the case for Christian Nationalism (or any version of theonomy) is wrapped up in what the words mean. So the first 20 minutes (or 20 pages) inevitably reduces to the author defining his terms. What’s a nation? What’s a clan/kin/tribe in the OT? This is where Wolfe loses quite a bit of the academic audience (just the feeling I’ve gotten from reading several reviews).
Anyway, I do think it’s worth reiterating that, at the end of all things, it’s not a nation or clan or country that stands with Jesus; it’s a trans-national, multi-ethnic church. So we must work backwards from there, accepting and seeking the limited goods that nations will do before that point.
-Ryan
(p.s. I do not know how Neil Shenvi got so popular. I’m not trying to throw shade; he seems very intelligent and helpful. But his actual credentials are not in theology at all)