438 Bogoslovni vestnik 84 (2024) • 2 K njig a je odlič e n pas t or alni pr ir oč nik za duhovnike, diakone in druge pasto- ralne delavce. To ni knjiga, ki jo vzameš v r ok e in pr eber eš – t o je prir očnik, lah- ko bi rekli celo molitvenik, ki ga lahko vedno znova jemljemo v roke in upora- bljamo. K njig a bi lahk o bila tudi ‚dar ž u- pnije‘ ob prijavi pogreba. Upokojeni mariborski nadškof msgr. dr. Marjan Turnšek je zapisal, da lahko knjiga posa- me znik u pomag a globlje dojeti las tno ž alo v anje ali ž alo v anje drugih, o vr edno- ti mar sik a t er o splošno mnenje o odno- su do rajnih, daje pa tudi konkretna iz- hodišč a z a osebno in sk upinsk o pomoč pri ž alo v anju. V pas t or alnem smislu je pomenljiva spodbuda za ustanavljanje sk upin ž alujočih po župnijah, ki naj bi postale del redne pastorale. Tako lahko upamo , da bo knjig a na podr očju pas t o- r ale ž alu jočih prinesla tudi k ak šen k on- kreten premik. Andrej Šegula Tom Wright and Michael F. Bird. Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Wit- ness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies. Lon- don: SPCK, 2024. 185 pp. ISBN 978- 0310162247. “We have recognised that the world we live in now is at a moment of social and economic turmoil, with new impe- rial po w er s rising and democr a tic na ti- ons tearing themselves apart. In such a combus tible w orld, w e need t o think about political theology , both theory and pr actice, mor e acut ely than since the Second W orld W ar . ” (W right and Bir d 2024, 175) This is wha t N. T . W righ t and M. F . Bir d sa y in the c onclusions of their recent book, Jesus and the Powers, whose r ele v ance is particularly jus tified in an in t erna tional w ar c on t e x t (Ukr ai- ne, Gaz a) that invites the academic w orl d an d the p u b l i c au tho ri ties t o r e- think the f ounda tions on which our po- litic al r egimes ar e based. Cert ainly , “the 2020s appear to be the most precarious and perilous time in human his t or y sin- ce the 1930s /…/ no w , w e ha v e the ad- ditional nig h tmar ish pr ospe ct of nucle- ar w ar ” (5). In this v ein, the diagnosis of the problem is aggravated, as the authors say, by the rise of new empires and the weakening of Western de- mocr a tic na tions. The empir es in que- s tion ar e, fir s t and f or emos t, Russia and China. Of the former, it is noted that “despite hopes that Russia might beco- me westernised, it seems that Russia remains what it has been ever since the se v en t een th cen tury: a milit ary dict a- t or ship” (3–4). Of the la tt er , it is s t a t ed that “China’s economic rise did not lead t o its democr a tic liber alisa tion; r a ther , the country turned into a wealthy and predatory superpower that runs a tech- nologic al sur v eillance s t a t e” (3). F or its part, the internal breakdown of We- stern democracies is giving rise to a ne w dang er within these democr acies: “our danger is the slow and steady accession of a soft -authorit arianism un- der the guise of being ‘pr ogr essiv e’ /…/ a state seeks to regulate as much of the individual’ s beli e f s, c on victions, c onsci- ence and r eligion as possible /…/ c on- stant surveillance and deliberate over- 439 Ocene r egula tion. ” (136–137) Along these li- nes, W righ t and Bir d ar gue tha t the er o- sion of liber al-democr atic r egimes is largely due to their very essence, provi- ded by Enlightenment thought: “in post-Enlightenment Europe and Ameri- ca, ‘religion’ was by definition separa- t ed off fr om e v er y thing else. ” (70) No w , in our “progressive” and post-modern (an ti-liber al and authorit arian) c on t e x t, “r e lig ion is pe r m itt e d, but it is e ithe r a state-approved religion, or else, and mor e t o the poin t, politics is the religi- on” (140). In the light of the above, Jesus and the Powers tries t o off er w a y s out of our cur r e n t situa tion of in t e r na tional cr isis, especially thr ough the a f or emen tioned ‘politic al theology ’ and, mor e specific al- ly , a Chris tian political theology: “we believe that the Church’s answer to the global crises of our day is, in sum, the kingdom of God /…/. Our working hypothesis is that the kingdom of God is not from this world, but it is empha- tic ally f or this w orld. The Chur ch’ s king- dom- v oc a tion is not only wha t is sa y s t o the world, but is also what the Church does within and for the sake of the wor- ld. ” (7) Christ ’ s message and the Church’s mission are not mainly linked t o a “pur ely spiritual en tity ” (35), but r a ther “the Bible is a book utt erly im- mersed in empire. Its stories are set in the midst of the great empires of Egypt, Ass yria, Babylon /…/ then finally the R oman Empir e. ” (10) Ther e f or e, biblic al values, and especially those of the New T es t amen t, imply the r eg ener a tion of the world already in History and not only in the a ft erlif e: “in e v er y ag e, e v e- ry church has had to discern what it meant then and there to say that Jesus has ‘all authority’ not only ‘in heaven’ but also ‘ on earth’ /…/ balancing sacr ed and secular . ” (97) Thus, the in t ertwining of the natural and the supernatural re- alms makes it impossible to relegate the r eligious question to the priv ate spher e or t o lif e a ft er dea th and ur g es us t o admit its politic al embodimen t: “wha t ar e these ‘po w er s’ /…/ the y ar e both /…/ ‘ earthly ’ and /…/ ‘hea v enly ’ or ‘ superna tur al’ /…/. W e per ceiv e them through the lens of modern Western thought, in which a great gulf stands be tw een the pr esen t w orld /…/ and an y other , whe ther w e c all it ‘hea v enly ’ /…/ or an y thing else. ” (51) It is pr ecisely this balance between the sacred and the ci- vil that is now to be calibrated, in a par- ticularly unst able conte xt wher e the “po w er s” ar e supplan ting God and ar e making inroads in both new empires and old democr acies: “wha t w e belie v e in is a theo-politic al g ospel tha t decla- res that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not.” (38) This does not mean, ho w e v er , tha t a r e turn t o a theocr a tic s y s t em is c alled f or: “w e ar e no f ans of theocr acy /…/ but if you want to change the game you need skin in the game. The people who chang e his t or y mus t mak e his t or y /…/ Ho w do y ou build f or the king dom [of God] in an ag e of empir e, wher e t ot ali- tarians tyrannise and our democracies appear dy s functional /…/ is not a pur e- ly r eligious ques tion. ” (37) According to the authors, the salva- tion of the Enligh t enmen t pr oject mus t involve reconsidering the inclusion of the public in fluence of the Chris tian r e- ligion in the world of democracies. In- deed, despite criticisms, W right and Bir d’ s c ommitmen t t o the liber al r egi- me, born of the Enlightenment, is expli- cit: “liber al democr acy and c onfiden t plur alism cons titut e a f orm of gov er- 440 Bogoslovni vestnik 84 (2024) • 2 nmen t and politic al philosoph y tha t gi- ves us the best opportunity to love God and to love our neighbour . ” (178) However, as has been said, for such a ‘politic al philosoph y ’ t o ha v e a positiv e return, it needs to be imbued with the spirit of a Chris tian politic al theology , with a public outr each: “t o eng ag e in tha t kind of holis tic mission will r equir e /…/ doin g some public theolog y /…/. If it is ob viously un wise t o mak e politics one’s religion, it is no less foolish to think that the life of faith has nothing t o do with our politic al disc our se and its l egi sl a tiv e chamber s. ” (100) Li ber al i sm and Christianity can and should be twinned: “the c ommon g ood is not in /…/ shar ed g oals as banal as ‘liv e and let live’. Authority is from God to the State and meets with the consensus of the people. ” (156) And it is pr ecisely the contribution of Christianity that can bring solidity t o liber al democr acy: “the problem with state authority from be- low-and this is proving to be the key vulnerability of liberal democracies to- day-is that they must be rooted in some kind of c onsensus. ” (155) With r eg ar d t o this, the special legitimacy of Chris ti- anity as a sour ce of a politic al theology capable of providing such a necessary consensus lies in the quality of the va- lues it pr omot es: “ther e w ould nev er be human rights as self-evident truths wi- thout scriptur al notions of the ‘imag e of God’ and the command to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ as it was inter- pr e t ed in Chris tian socie ties. ” (167) In conclusion, on the one hand, Je- sus and the Powers off er s a diagnosis of the gr a v e in t erna tional politic al situa ti- on, linked to the rise of new empires and the crisis of the Enlightenment style liber al democr atic regimes. On the other hand, it puts forward a possible solution, which in v olv e s s tr e ng the ning liberal democracies by including ele- men ts of r e flection and action dr awn fr om Chris tianity tha t c an be inc orpor a- ted into the public sphere by means of a cert ain politic al theology . Unai Buil-Z amor ano