Yes, absolutely.

It is indisputable that Reformed Christianity does not hold the levers of power in any Western country. Christians of some stripe pop up in many governments; Catholics sit on the US Supreme Court, though unfortunately not, so far as I know, any Christians. Hegseth is Sec. of War, whatever you think of him and his theology and all the rest of that mess. (I’m unimpressed.) Moreover, it seems an unlikely eventuality that we get not only political power but enough of it to actually re-shape our polity as thoroughly as intuition suggests it needs.

Such circumstances prompt a thought most natural: if we don’t have political power and don’t look to be getting it any time soon, why worry about political theology? Why not focus on other, more immediately doable areas?

Four issues with that.

First, it’s almost a false dichotomy. I say ‘almost,’ because worrying about political theology is a shift in focus, away from those other areas (ecclesiology, family theology, personal virtue, business theology, theology proper, soteriology, etc.) For some to focus on political theology, however, does not mean those other areas go neglected; indeed, a thorough and excellent political theology will turn regularly to those other fields for insight, correction, and to spread understanding. My own study of political theology has already materially enriched my ecclesiology and sacramental theology.

Second, in order to witness properly to the world, we must know where the world needs reproof and where correction. If we come to the world and say, ‘Your civil government is icky, but I don’t really know exactly where or how to fix it…,’ we make a mockery of Him, being His representatives in the world. The man who knows not righteousness cannot assail sin with full confidence and full vigor; he is hamstrung by his ignorance.

Third, if we do not develop our political theology now, we may very well end up in the position of the Puritans in the 1630s. They came suddenly into the ownership of England, and they made a bungle of it (as, in another way, the Puritans of New England did between 1620 and 1800, turning that land from a Christian republic to a festering pit of Unitarians, nominal Christians, and revivalist cults). They came into power all unlooked for (as we may, if God wills it, for the probabilities we see are irrelevant against His design and decree); they did not know, really, what to do with it. Their political theology, while superior by far to that of the modern Western man by far, was still bogged down in old errors, still heavy with new errors not yet identified and expelled. If we are not careful, we may put ourselves or, the worse, our children in that situation.

Fourth, we must do political theology with care and joy because God gave it to us in His word. How dare we eschew a gift of His giving! We have the great civil code of Moses; we have the example of Nehemiah and Solomon and Joshua; we have the instructions and warnings of the Psalms, the prophets, the wise men of old, of all the New Testament, which warns rulers to beware (John 12:35; Mark 12:1-12). We have that perpetual reminder of Psalm 2, that all rulers should heed His word, and we have the reproof in Revelation, the warning that the greatest polity of man, even Jerusalem who is Babylon the Great, will fall to His judgement. If we spurn this gift, we kick the goad most pitifully (Acts 26:14).

Not every man need dive into political theology, just as not every man need dive into ecclesiology or creation theology or the theology of fiction (though in all of these the Christian given an intellect is well advised to get the basics down). Some are called to go farther here than others. Yet the church- meaning the body, not the institution, though the institution should call for and foster this advance- the church body must develop a robust, Biblical political theology, an understanding of the principle and practicality of righteous civil governance.

God bless.