Sean has drawn attention to an article Mike Bird drew attention to, which was published in the Australian periodical, The Monthly a year or two ago. This kind of hat-tipping dissemination of good stuff is one of the most useful functions of blogs. Thanks to both of you.
The piece in question is by the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and explores the relevance of Bonhoeffer's political theology as a resource for reflection on today's political issues of the 21st Century. There's something unusual but reassuring about a political leader whose intellectual and political life are resourced by such well informed theological reflection. That Bonhoeffer's life and thought is given such prominence in the political theology of a modern political leader is so unusual it is almost a work based experiment in practical and contextual theology.
Some important critiques and correctives of the current politicisation
of religious commitments as vote-catching strategy, while insisting that religious values should inform, shape and resource political life – and in the case of Christian values, do so by speaking truth to power, siding with the vulnerable and marginalised, and refusing to be silenced on matters of social justice and human freedoms. Rudd makes it clear that Bonhoeffer's life and thought provide important, creative, and perhaps for political elites, disruptive guiding principles which have been lived out, and given both theological articulation and embodied witness in Bonhoeffer's story.
Called "Faith in Politics", you can find it here.
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