My friend Andrew Isker has weighed in on the Christian nationalism debate with a response to Peter Leithart's short statement on Christian nationalism. A few weeks ago, Larson Hicks and I interviewed Isker about his book (co-authored with Andrew Torba) on Christian nationalism.

Over the course of 2022, I have been honored and privileged to preach at a few ordination/installation services for some very good men in some very good churches. Here's a recap.

Ecclesiocentrism is incredibly simple to understand and absolutely ubiquitous in Scripture.

This is a good, wide ranging interview with Michael Horton and Peter Leithart. While Horton makes it known that he disagrees with Leithart's approach to Christians in the public square, he asks good questions here. There was one "gotcha" question from Old Testament law, but it turned into one of the best parts of the discussion as Leithart explained how to interpret and apply Old Covenant law in the New Covenant era.

 

 

Think of the layout of a medieval city. The church is at the center of town and the steeple is its high point. The church's position as society's center and summit is represented geographically and architecturally. But this does not mean the church is the only sphere that matters; they did not try to cram everything into the church building, so to speak. Fanning out from that central location were homes where families lived, shops and fields where people worked, schools where they were educated, and, yes, even a castle or government building to house the civil authority. The geographic layout was symbolic - the church did not control or rule these other spheres, but she was responsible to disciple them and they all found their end - their telos, their purpose - in the church’s worship gathering.