The Kingdom of Christ

Today, I have just finished reading one of the most complicated and difficult to read books that I have read since I have been out of school. I has proven to be one of the most challenging and beneficial books I have ever read. The Kingdom of Christ, by my former classmate Russ Moore, is a great look at the history of evangelicalism, its growing consensus on Kingdom theology, its current challenges, and how that all plays into evangelical interaction in the public square. The book is challenging and informative for every believer in forming a consistent eschatology, soteriology, ecclesiology and sociopolitical engagement.
I have included the introduction below in order to give a better idea of what the book is about. Also, you can check out my reading list at the bottom of the page to see what else I have been reading this year.

Introduction

The title of this book is, in some ways, awfully misleading. After all, there really is no "new" evangelical perspective about the Kingdom of God. What is true about the Kingdom of Jesus was, in one sense, "new" only when it was announced on the shores of Galilee, whispered in the catacombs of Rome, and shouted in the marketplaces of Ephesus. The Kingdom concept is a mystery older than the creation itself—a mystery that points to God's cosmic purpose to sum up the entire cosmos under the rule of one human King. Jesus of Nazareth (Eph. 1:10). What is "new" is that many evangelicals have stopped arguing about the Kingdom of God—and have started seeking after it.
From the very beginning of the contemporary evangelical movement, con­servative Protestants have bickered and splintered over Kingdom questions. Is it future or present? Is it spiritual or material? Is it the church or the world— or neither or both? Is it to be found in evangelizing the lost or in reclaiming the culture? After a half-century of searching the Scriptures, however, a quiet consensus is emerging about the Kingdom of God—a consensus that offers possibilities for evangelical theology to correct some longstanding errors and missteps. To some degree, the Kingdom confusion among evangelicals was a byproduct of the theological health of the movement—it being protected from liberalism, after all, by the divergent streams of dispensationalism and covenant theology. Now, evangelicals have the opportunity to stop polarizing around the Kingdom question—marching off into partisan camps at war over the prophecy charts at the back of our Bibles.
This book takes a look at the Kingdom through the prism of evangelical political action, but that is not because the Kingdom is a tool to equip evan­gelicals for politics. It is not even because evangelical politics is all that impor­tant, in the larger scheme of things. Instead, it is because the failure of evangelical politics points us to something far more important that underlies it—the failure of evangelical theology. It was the capitulation to the political regime of Nazi Germany that convinced Karl Barth that "German Christianity" had forgotten Christ. In the same way, it was the "uneasy con­science " of a socially and politically disengaged fundamentalism that prompted theologian Carl Henry to question whether evangelicals had an adequate doctrine of the Kingdom of God. For Henry and his colleagues, the problem was not that fundamentalists were apolitical—the problem was why they were apo­litical. Their isolationism sprung from competing and unbiblical views of the Kingdom of God—views that would compromise their witness at almost every other point. And so evangelical thought revealed the Kingdom crisis in evangelical theology. The same can be said of the theologically anemic (and often missiologically embarrassing) attempts at "Religious Right" and "Religious Left" activism since Henry's day. Could it be that evangelicals are seen as a political "constituency" because about all we have to offer the watch­ing culture is politics? Could it be that the eclipse of Jesus in evangelical poli­tics is a symptom of the eclipse of Jesus in evangelicalism itself?
This book calls evangelical Christians to shape our identity by our con­victions about the Kingdorm of God in Christ. The new perspective on the Kingdom of God can define evangelical theology along the lines of the central themes of the Old and New Testament canon. In the end, a renewed focus on the Kingdom is essential if evangelicals are ever going to grapple with the evan­gel of a crucified, resurrected, and enthroned Messiah. As such, American evan­gelicalism ought to become both more and less political. Evangelical theology will not serve an activist agenda to be an identity caucus in someone's politi­cal party. But evangelical theology will remind Christians that the call to Christ is not a call to "go to heaven when you die," but instead a call to be "joint-heirs" (KJV) with the Messiah who will inherit an all-encompassing Kingdom. This means that the most important political reality of all is not the local voter precinct or the White House reception room, but the creaky pews of the local congregation. A renewed Kingdgm theology can remind evangelical churches that they are the rulers of the universe—but not yet (1 Cor. 6:3). This means that evangelicals can see the Kingdom of God as something more than the ter­minus point on the prophecy chart; something more than a crocheted senti­ment hanging on the kitchen wall. It means that evangelicals can confront the Caesars of this age with a truth that once caused riots in the streets—there is "another king" (Acts 17:7). It means that we can remind ourselves that the only perspective on the Kingdom of Christ that matters ultimately is quite old. And that perspective has already been addressed over the waters of the Jordan and in the caverns of a garden tomb, and will be repeated once more before a watching cosmos: "Jesus is Lord" (Phil 2-9-11).