Christianity and Contemporary Politics by Luke Bretherton

Written by a friend of friend - I originally picked this up to read on behalf of someone else.

It is a thought provoking book and I think it is also a very important book. It isn't really about politics and in some very real ways, it is only tangentially about Christianity.

However, it is extremely provocative, challenging and in the end very much worth reading if you are interested at all in any of the following:

• the idea of the state in contemporary society
• the idea of community in modern culture
• the impact of individual identity in modern culture
• the intersection of contemporary European Christianity and post war liberal consensus politics.

Sure the last of those bullet points could appear so specific as to be a niche with no one in it but to be honest I know many people for whom that last point is something they've grappled with at length without getting to a satisfactory destination.

I, personally, can't subscribe to Luke's view of the State, nor for what he considers is the difference between the 'two cities' and I find following after Augustine in areas where his profoundly greek dualisms guide his theology deeply problematic. However, I have had a tough time reading this book, not because I disagree with it but because it's challenged me to think very carefully about what I DO think and about what I've accepted as the end of my previous explorations of this area. Luke offers some superb thinking in this area and even where I find his arguments problematic it has only served to make me think harder about my own ideas.

If there's one thing to take away from this book it is that there is real substance yet to be mined from thinking through how European (and specifically British) Christianity intersects with the political establishment and wider culture.

Highly recommended.