Adding Cross to Crown: The Political Significance of Christ's Passion

Renowned evangelical historian Mark Noll (The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind) turns his attention to the role of theology in politics in this lecture given at the Center for Public Justice at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. Noll assumes politics is a locus of Christian activity, yet one that has led, in his view, to abuses such as the medieval crusades and the contemporary religious right's assertion that the American way of life is a Christian way of life. Noll argues that the contradictions of the cross should temper the confidence of the crown. As a central symbol of suffering and humility, the life and crucifixion of Jesus bring about the glory of redemption through the humble circumstances of the incarnation. The juncture of the universal (Christian truth) and the particular (history) should guide Christians to measure carefully their scriptural resources against the demands of their times, remembering Luther's insight that salvation lies not in human hands but in God's. Included in this slim volume of recent Protestant thinking on faith and politics are three differing perspectives--by Bratt, Stackhouse and Skillen--on the problems and possibilities of Noll's model of cross and crown as the interpretive key to Christian political praxis. (Nov.)