Jesus and Politics: Confronting the Powers

Trinity Journal, Fall 2006 by Fuhrmann, Justin M

Alan Storkey. Jesus and Politics: Confronting the Powers. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005. 336 pp. $24.99.

Placing Jesus and Politics in the same genre as Edersheim's The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Voder's The Politics of Jesus, and Wright's Jesus and the Victory of God (p. 10), Christian political theorist Alan Storkey seeks to draw out political ramifications from the gospel portraits of Jesus' life and teachings, rather than viewing religion and politics as separate domains and seeing Jesus' politics as a reflection of contemporary ideology (p. 9).

In chs. 1-2, Storkey traces the Jewish and Greco-Roman political context in which Jesus emerged, including Jewish and Greco-Roman history from Alexander to Herod's sons and the Roman prefects/procurators; the geographic and political situations of Galilee, Judea/Samaria, and the northwest territories; Roman imperial government; and the sects of Jesus' day (Herodians, Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes). In ch. 3, Storkey addresses John the Baptist, understanding him as a political figure in the prophetic tradition. This tradition was not separate from the political sphere, but represented "God's official opposition, commenting on and critiquing government in the light of God's purposes and law" (p. 62).

In light of this religio-political backdrop, Storkey turns to Jesus, understanding the gospels as pictures of Jesus' engagement with and repudiation of the politics of his time. Jesus' message is not solely religious, but political. Jesus is a political figure (messiah = king), engaging his context with the message of the kingdom (= government) of God (chs. 5-6). Jesus, however, is not a political figure in the modern sense, nor does he represent a government that pursues power as the Roman and Herodian governments of his day. Jesus' government reflects a different kind of politics, a politics governed by obedience and submission to God (p. 79). Jesus also has different political principles and a different form of statecraft than that reflected at his time and throughout political history. His principles and statecraft include the equality of all people (Jew and Gentile), peace, truth, integrity, freedom, weakness, reconciliation, forgiveness, stewardship, compassion, love, political tolerance, servanthood, political office as accountable before God, submission to the law of God, justice, and mercy, rather than preference for the powerful and wealthy, war, popularity, power, control, ownership, compulsion, domination, and a ruler unaccountable to and above the law (chs. 7-9).

Following this trend, the remainder of the book interprets various gospel texts in light of their political ramifications. Chapter 4 addresses Jesus' refusal to accept his status as king, submitting to God in both the temptation and feeding narratives (cf. John 6:15). Chapter 10 addresses Jesus' interaction with the economic systems of the government and the temple. Chapter 11 discusses the political significance of the passion predictions, transfiguration, and the triumphal entry. Chapter 12 addresses the events of Holy Week, Jesus' trial, and the cross, and ch. 13 examines the political significance of the resurrection. The book also includes two appendices: a discussion of hermeneutics and a chronology of the history presented in chs. 1-2.

Storkey offers a sound exegetical rendering of the life and teachings of Jesus in light of the religio-political Jewish and Greco-Roman background, enabling the principles to come to life in the modern world. He masterfully interweaves discussion of Jesus with discussion of the modern context, making applicability easy to find. On the other hand, Storkey does not utilize many commentaries or foreign language sources, and his central discussion in chs. 7-9 offers little exegetical grounding, as is apparent from the dominance of political as opposed to biblical sources in the bibliography for these chapters. Nonetheless, this book is to be welcomed in the evangelical church, offering a needed corrective to the current lack of political engagement.

Justin M. Fuhrmann

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Deerfield, Illinois