EPISODE · Mar 23, 2026 · 35 MIN
The Conflict of Kingdoms: Church and State
from Reparadigmed Podcast · host Nick Paine
In a world of deep political division, how should we as followers of Jesus navigate national identity? And how should we think about not only partisan allegiance, but allegiance to the states we are born into? From the "Constantinian shift" to modern Christian Nationalism, the church has often struggled to balance the ethics of the Gospel with the demands of worldly power. Sometimes we have privatized the Kingdom of God, while at other times, we have sacrificed its uniqueness in order to seize state power.In this episode, we strip away the layers of "Christian Realism" and "Two Kingdoms" theology and we urge American Evangelical Christians to rediscover the radical political identity of the early church and reject the spirit and propaganda of our age.Resource Referenced: Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder, Moral Man and Immoral Society by Reinhold Niebuhr, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, The Schleitheim Confession (1527) (Anabaptist Statement of Faith), The City of God (De Civitate Dei) by Augustine of Hippo, Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved (1526) by Martin LutherInterlude Music: Elysian Echoes by Ben ElsonTheme Song: Believe by PosthumorousConnect with Us: Website Youtube Instagram Email
What this episode covers
In a world of deep political division, how should we as followers of Jesus navigate national identity? And how should we think about not only partisan allegiance, but allegiance to the states we are born into? From the "Constantinian shift" to modern Christian Nationalism, the church has often struggled to balance the ethics of the Gospel with the demands of worldly power. Sometimes we have privatized the Kingdom of God, while at other times, we have sacrificed its uniqueness in order to seize state power. In this episode, we strip away the layers of "Christian Realism" and "Two Kingdoms" theology and we urge American Evangelical Christians to rediscover the radical political identity of the early church and reject the spirit and propaganda of our age. Resource Referenced: Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/145076.Resident_Aliens]by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, The Politics of Jesus [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/285514.The_Politics_of_Jesus]by John Howard Yoder, Moral Man and Immoral Society [https://www.amazon.com/Moral-Man-Immoral-Society-Theological/dp/0664235395]by Reinhold Niebuhr, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/soul-searching-9780195180954] by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton, The Schleitheim Confession (1527) [https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Schleitheim_Confession] (Anabaptist Statement of Faith), The City of God (De Civitate Dei) [https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1201.htm] by Augustine of Hippo, Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved (1526) [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55464296-whether-soldiers-too-can-be-saved] by Martin Luther Interlude Music: Elysian Echoes [https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/tracks/6661d7bc-341a-4662-b3f5-371bca48ab0d/] by Ben Elson Theme Song: Believe [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT9z3AMHr-A] by Posthumorous [https://linktr.ee/posthumorous] Connect with Us: Website [https://www.reparadigmed.com/] Youtube [https://www.youtube.com/@reparadigmed] Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/reparadigmed/] Email [[email protected]]
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The Conflict of Kingdoms: Church and State
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