{"id":131190,"date":"2024-09-13T17:06:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T21:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=131190"},"modified":"2024-09-13T18:01:01","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T22:01:01","slug":"church-times-bp-john-inge-reviews-ephraim-radners-new-book-mortal-goods-reimagining-christian-political-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=131190","title":{"rendered":"(Church Times) Bishop John Inge reviews Ephraim Radner’s new book ‘Mortal Goods: Reimagining Christian political duty’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The scholarship of the author shines through the pages of the book as he ponders deeply on what he believes \u201cthe duty of man\u201d to entail and what the main thing is that makes for the good life during our sojourn here on earth. It is, he tells us, Avodat Hashem<\/em>: service (or worship) of the Name, honouring God in everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That will mean, as he summarises it in the final text of his letter to his children, in the last ten pages of the book, after much rich reflection: grasping the truth of being made in the image of God, male and female; valuing family, neighbours, toil, and friendship; exhibiting patience, humility, hope, and forgiveness in the face of suffering; finding joy, especially in the recognition of our exhaustive grasp by God\u2019s love; and living within the Church\u2019s time as well as our own. All this we are called to do while acknowledging that God can be \u201ca question, an encounter, a discovery, a struggle, sometimes (too often, perhaps) even a loss and a cry\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This leaves out much of what is nowadays generally thought to be Christian political duty, which I found something of a relief: it is a modest manifesto powerfully articulated, which I found deeply attractive. Crucially, as the title implies, the book is offered as a vision of the good life lived in the light of mortality….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>

Mortal Goods
Reimagining Christian Political Duty

Ephraim Radner

This book by one of today\u2019s leading theologians examines how Christians might more faithfully and realistically imagine their political vocation.

Ephraim Radner explains that our Christian calling is to limit our\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/FuAJeBEoxH<\/a><\/p>— Theology Books (@theology_books) April 14, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>