Description
Book Synopsis★ Publishers Weekly starred review "A nuanced look at America's legacy of scriptural language."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) Christianity Today 2024 Book Award Finalist (Politics and Public Life) How do Bible passages written thousands of years ago apply to politics today? What can we learn from America's history of using the Bible in politics? How can we converse with people whose views differ from our own? In The Ballot and the Bible, Kaitlyn Schiess explores these questions and more. She unpacks examples of how Americans have connected the Bible to politics in the past, highlighting times it was applied well and times it was egregiously misused. Schiess combines American political history and biblical interpretation to help readers faithfully read Scripture, talk with others about it, and apply it to contemporary political issues--and to their lives. Rather than prescribing what readers should think about specific hot-button issues, Schiess outlines core biblical themes around power, allegiance, national identity, and more. Readers will be encouraged to pursue a biblical basis for their political engagement with compassion and confidence.
Table of ContentsContents
Introduction: Is That Your Bible?
1. A City on a Hill:
An American Legacy of Puritan Biblical Interpretation
2. Submission and Revolution: Romans 13 and American Identity
3. "The Bible through Slave-Holding Spectacles": The Bible in the Civil War
4. Your Kingdom Come: Social Gospel Hermeneutics
5. A Stick of Dynamite: Civil Rights and Scripture
6. Magic of the Market: The Hermeneutics of Small Government
7. Late Great United States: Biblical Eschatology in the Cold War
8. Prayer, Politics, and Personal Faith: George W. Bush's and Barack Obama's Use of Scripture
9. "Give unto Caesar What Is Caesar's": Evangelicals and Trump
10. Seek the Peace and Prosperity of the City: Jeremiah 29 and Political Theology
Conclusion: The Promise and Peril of Biblical References in Politics
