political theology

Firstly, I'm not sure what Rebs was talking about... I always make sense, don't I??

Secondly, here's the concluding paragraph from my essay explaining the political theology of Moltmann and Metz.

"There is then, its seems, a ‘trinitarian’ shape to praxis as it functions as a criterion of truth in a fundamental theology ordered to politics. Firstly, with respect to the Father as creator and source, praxis acknowledges the doctrine of the goodness of creation; it is so committed to the well-being of the created order, both natural and social, that the practical effectiveness of social arrangements takes on the role of a criterion – if this arrangement is damaging to creation and society, it cannot be from God because God is committed to the well-being of creation. Secondly, with respect to the Son and his redemptive role, the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth functions to undermine the secular ‘closure’ of history to the genuinely novel, and rather orients our attention to the novum creatio that we expect from God, in hope. This hope is not stimulated by the disquiet of our hearts, but by the divine promises which call us from complacency and into action. Thus, praxis functions to critique our behaviour, and call into question whether our action witnesses to the truth of the resurrection of Jesus, which has broken all bounds and revealed “the mission and call of God, which demand impossibilities of man.” Thirdly, by looking at the life of Jesus, we note the work of the Spirit which gave him birth, empowered, and raised Jesus from the dead. This work of the Spirit removes the docetic appearance of inimitability from Jesus. Rather, the presence of the Spirit in the church, just as it was in Jesus, means that we are enlisted in the redemptive work that Christ has begun; in the carrying out of that work, our own salvation and theosis arrives. Finally, the shape of the trinitarian community of Father, Son, and Spirit demands that those who claim to be empowered by that trinitarian life reflect it in a praxis of community, of solidarity. Metz and Soelle advocate an ecclesiology that views the church as being instrumental in extending the ‘kingdom of God’. What generates the activity of the church is the gap between the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’, between the change that the arrival of the kingdom has achieved, and what remains to be done. Soelle writes that “being a disciple of Jesus… is a response to the message that the kingdom of God has come near, and from the beginning it was made in society.” The tasks that remain to be accomplished are social tasks, and therefore the response is a social one. This is why, despite the wicked moments in the history of the church, institution per se should not be abandoned, for “institutions are again acquiring a whole new meaning… as the desired bearer of critically responsible action.” In conclusion then, from both the economic roles of the trinitarian persons, and the imminent communal life of the persons together, it can be seen how praxis, or action in the world, is a fundamental category for generating and explaining Christian truth in our time."