Waiting for Gospel, by Douglas John Hall

Chapter 11 – Christianity and Empire

1.  What a great chapter (as opposed to last week)!  Hall’s basic thesis here is that the Christian Empire serves as an oxymoron…a bold contradiction of values and agendas.  He begins with the assertion that empires need religion; then backs it up with numerous examples throughout history…the greatest of these being Rome and the United States. 

What do the Roman and U.S. empires have in common in this regard?  Where are these oxymorons most visible today?

2.  Next, Hall discusses what empires find attractive about the Christian religion.  The most attractive ingredient was the Christian emphasis upon the unity of the deity…of all things “under God.”  A second attractive element is its potentiality for triumphalism.  A third advantage is Christianity’s tendency to foster personal morality and to downplay or neglect social ethics.  Fourth, empires could count on religion to promote imperial authority.

Review and reflect on each of these four attractions.  How do they live on today?

3.  Hall then moves to the role of prophetic faith and the rub it causes against the empire.  He notes several clashes that emerge.  First, prophetic faith is oriented towards truth.  Second, the prophetic tradition never allows its hope in God’s purposes to blind it to the actual negations that mar existence under the conditions of history.  Third, prophetic faith manifests a particular awareness of and concern for those whose suffering is the greatest…those victimized by the dominant culture.

Where, exactly, has the church failed and succeeded in each of these historically?  How is the church managing these three roles today?

4.  Hall contends that contemporary Christians are living on the edge of empire.  Christendom, the alliance of the Christian religion and imperial cultures, was always an oxymoron…one that finds itself in its final stages of decay.  But this is not all bad, Hall urges.  In fact, it is the stance that prophetic faith finds most natural. 

He goes on, “Because of its inherent contextuality, this theology constantly involves the submission of its theoretical ideas, doctrines, concerns and hunches to the realities of the here and now.  Therefore it is ready to make distinctions and to entertain paradox and nuance.”  But not all activity of empires is evil or unacceptable.  In spite of such, much good has emerged in certain pockets and corners of the empire that have promoted genuine Christian ethics and activity.  Hall cites the United States as one such empire that has elicited much good in the soupy mix of Christendom.

So, how does it feel to you to be living “on the edge of empire?”  What does it mean to you to be a faithful, participating Christian in America today?