Dr. David VanDrunen from Westminster Seminary California joins Mark and Rex to discuss his recent book, Politics after Christendom.

TRANSCRIPT

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Welcome to Jessup think I'm your host Mark Moore, and your co host, Rex Gurney. And Rex we have on the show today, Dr. David VanDrunen. He's the Robert B strumble, Associate Professor of systematic theology and Christian ethics at Westminster Seminary in Southern California. And he's on the show to talk to us today about his new book, politics after Christendom.

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And I think we will all find this a fascinating conversation. He has a lot of really interesting things to say.

0:32

Yeah, so we hope you enjoy the show. Well, Dr. VanDrunen and it really is a pleasure to have you on the episode. I'm so excited to talk about this topic. I think it's so important, especially maybe for this year, being an election year. And just understanding politics and Christian life, understanding our role in as the church in politics. And and we're here to kind of talk about your new book, politics after Christendom that was put out by Zondervan academic. So we want to give a shout out to zahner unacademic for connecting us, and for sending us a copy to be able to dive into. And even with that title, it really caught my eye. And one of the reasons why I reached out to you is that idea of politics, after Christendom and so some people may have a little bit of question of what what do you mean by Christendom? So can we start maybe there by by defining Christendom, as we kind of move into what what it looks like to have to for politics after that?

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Yeah, sure. That's a I think that is a good place to start. Because when when you hear the word, Christendom, people don't always use it in the same way. So when I use that, in the book, I'm referring to this, you might say this long experience or experiment, primarily in European countries that lasted really from the very early Middle Ages, until really, a within the last few centuries, in which it was generally regarded that these companies societies were regarded as holistically integrated Christian communities. So just for some historical perspective, of course, when, when the gospel was first proclaimed, after after Christ's death and resurrection, in the Roman Empire, the the early Christian church was this tiny minority. They faced a lot of opposition and persecution from the authorities. The Roman Empire was officially pagan, you might say they had their gods that they worshipped. And it was not comfortable for those who didn't want to worship those gods. And yet, after a few centuries, you might say, the tide began to turn, the Roman emperors who were who began to profess the name of Christ, and the Roman Empire became officially Christian. And it wasn't as though church and state became indistinguishable or something. There were still distinctions between church and state, and families and universities and trade associations since but at the same time, it was understood that all of these were united by a common Christian profession. And, and as part of that, the understanding was is that the civil authorities would be supporting in favoring the one true church as that was understood, and that they would punish heresies and blasphemies. And those who were of other religions, or who had believed in versions of Christianity that didn't fit the prevailing model, there really wasn't a place for them in these societies, or else they could exist with pretty extreme hardships. And that was really the kind of the kind of mindset that that prevailed for really well over 1000 years. And it was really only until what we would call the the modern era, that opinions and practices began to change. And so you know, now we find ourselves in communities that used to be considered part of Christendom in which it's no longer understood that these are Christian holistically, Christian societies, right? It's no longer assumed that bit