The possibility of a Christian politics

Forty-five years ago David Martin, then in his early forties, wrote an influential article for Theology, 'Ethical Commentary and Political Decision' (October 1973). In this he argued that the sociologist can be useful to political decision-makers: by providing an analysis of the political situation as it is, was or will be (but emphatically not 'ought to be'), and by tracing the antecedents of a situation and the possible future consequences of that situation. He suggested: These services which 'sociology' may provide represent the combined resources of economics, political science, etc., and are only new in that nowadays such services are explicitly sought and are systematically performed. Presumably in the past every politician and ethical commentator was an amateur political scientist and economist . . . What is now understood in the multi-dimensional perspectives of sociology as systematised, verified propositional knowledge has always been practical knowledge. (p. 527) Now, after a lifetime of distinguished research on different patterns of European secularization and, in contrast, on the global expansion of Pentecostalism, he returns to the theme of political decision-making. He offers a unique overview of the various options today that are possible, or no longer possible, for a specifically Christian politics.