Key Texts: Augustine’s City of God (Books IV & XIX), Aquinas’s Summa Theologica (Part II-II, qq. 90–108)

Key Questions: What did Christendom’s two most influential theologians think about justice, the state,
and the law?

Key Texts: Romans 13, 1 Peter 2, Revelation 13

Key Questions: Why, according to Scripture, do governments exist? What role do they play in God’s
purposes for the world? How should Christians relate to civil authority?

Key Texts: Psalm 10, Romans 5, Revelation 21

Key Question: What are the main ideas, tensions, and questions that have shaped and occupied Christian
political thought throughout history?

Key Text: Genesis 1:27

Key Questions: What does it mean to be made in God’s image? How does God’s command to “exercise
dominion” shape the way we think about politics today? In other words: what are people for, and what is
God’s vision for our life together?