Reimagining the Bible and Politics for the Local Church

The Bible calls us to live as disciples of Jesus in every area of our lives, including politics. But how do we live as faithful political disciples when politics has become so toxic? Too often, Scripture’s political witness is reduced to a few verses to defend our partisan political team. For some, political neutrality is the gold standard in congregational life. But if God’s people refuse to pursue political discipleship, someone—or something—will disciple our politics for us.

Rather than rehashing our current political context or attempting to offer a blueprint for contemporary political practice, this webinar—based on the new book Reimagining Biblical Politics—invites readers from across the political spectrum to rediscover the startling, strange, beautiful, and often-neglected world of biblical politics and imagine how the Bible might transform our political witness. Each chapter offers a snapshot of a different biblical text or figure—such as Esther, the Torah, Jeremiah, Paul, the Midwives of Exodus, and Jesus—and explores how those texts offer us a vision of political discipleship. To help us imagine how we might move from Scripture to political action, the author includes stories of faithful political discipleship from around the world and throughout church history.

Note: In order to get the most out of this series, participants will be encouraged to purchase the book (at a special discounted rate).

Sessions

Dr Michael Rhodes is a lecturer in Old  Testament at Carey Baptist College. Michael’s passion is to help the church hear and respond to Scripture’s call to embody God’s justice and mercy on behalf of the marginalized. This passion inspired Michael and his wife Rebecca’s decision to live, work, and worship in an economically impoverished community for the ten years prior to his coming to Carey in 2021. Interest in how the church might become a community of justice and mercy also fueled Michael’s dissertation research on moral formation and economic ethics in biblical meals, as well as his current research project on moral formation for justice in Scripture. Michael is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. 

Additional Information 

Group viewing? 
Our webinars cost the same no matter how many people you have watching together or if you watch alone. If you will be watching with a group, we’d love you to consider the additional group viewing payment option at the checkout that doubles the price. If you choose to do this: thank you! 

Webinar recordings and additional resources
A few days after each webinar a link to the recording will be provided as well as any additional resources that may be included such as readings and website links. 

Post-purchase emails
After purchasing this online resource, you will receive three lots of automated emails. Firstly, from our administration system confirming payment etc. Secondly, from Stripe who process the credit card payment. Thirdly, approximately 20 minutes later you will receive webinar access emails with a unique link/token to access each webinar, e.g., a series of 4 webinars will have 4 separate emails – you don’t need to keep track of these webinar emails as the day before each webinar, and half an hour before each webinar starts, you will receive an automated email with your unique access link/token to click through to access each webinar. These access links/tokens can only be used on one device at a time. You can access the webinar room at any time before the official start time in order to test your device – you will be taken to a webinar waiting room. If you leave the waiting room or webinar and have difficulty regaining access, please ensure you close the original web browser tab or window before clicking the webinar access link/token in the email.