by: Steven Félix-Jäger

• Format

  Paperback

  ISBN

  9781540968142

  Dimensions

  5.5 x 8.5

  Pub. Date

  Feb 2025

  SRP

  $26.99

  Carton Quantity

  40

  Number of pages

  240

  Buy

About

Jesus calls us to make disciples of all the nations. Many Christians believe this means enlisting soldiers in a culture war. But putting faith in the service of politics risks remaking God in our own image. How can the church help bring God's kingdom to earth without relying on the political structures of this world?

Critiquing our idolization of the values of classical Western liberalism, Steven Félix-Jäger seeks a renewal of the church's public witness. He points out the pitfalls that stem from our obsession with individual freedom--from the prosperity gospel to Christian nationalism to conformity with secular progressivism. True freedom is not about individual liberty or free market economics but about flourishing in covenant with God. Félix-Jäger offers a public theology that challenges the church to be a holy, loving, and generous witness to a world bound by visions of self-absorbed autonomy and materialism. Inspired by Jubilee and Pentecost, he ultimately constructs an alternative model for public witness rooted in the abundance of the Spirit.

The Problem and Promise of Freedom not only serves as an indispensable resource for students of religion and society but also offers urgent and clear-sighted witness to the church today.

Prologue: A Public Theology for the Church
Introduction: The Problem of Freedom
Part 1: The Critical Arguments
1. Conflicting Concepts of Social Liberty: Freedom and Covenant
2. Moral Conflict by Consumer Choice: Freedom from the Free Market
3. Conflicting Citizenships and the Kingdom: Living in a Free Country
Part 2: The Constructive Arguments
4. The Free Person: Life in God's Covenantal Community
5. To Freely Give: Covenantal Generosity as the Economic Core of a Renewal Public Theology
6. To Freely Depend: Mutuality and Hospitality as the Social Core of a Renewal Public Theology
Conclusion: The Promise of Freedom
Index

Endorsements

"Steven Félix-Jäger has crafted a robust theology of the responsible church. His book presents a church that carefully asks what is going on in the wider culture and responds to the salient issues of the day from its fidelity to covenantal freedom, proclaiming God's vision of shalom, and embodying a new form of public witness. The responsible church lives out a public theology that is rooted in God's covenant of abundance. Félix-Jäger's brilliant book is both a thesis and a manual for churches willing to be 'responsible' in today's controversial Western societies."

Nimi Wariboko, Boston University

"The concept of 'freedom'--particularly for those in the Western world--is fraught with misunderstanding, misapplication, and misappropriation. Especially for the Christian. Too often, we see our freedom in Christ as a kind of libertine Americanism where we can do whatever we want under the banner of empire. Thankfully, Steven Félix-Jäger has offered us a substantive alternative. To be free, it seems, is to be submitted to Christ. And this book paves a way forward to understand how that is more about freedom than anything a nation could ever construct on its own."

A. J. Swoboda, associate professor of Bible and theology, Bushnell University; author of The Gift of Thorns

"This book rejects conservative Christianity's culture-war stance against secular liberalism and instead advances a vibrant Pentecostal public theology of renewal and abundance. Rooted in the biblical themes of covenant, jubilee, and Pentecost (interpreted as a cosmic jubilee), this book presents a constructive theological alternative to secular liberal ideologies of freedom and the free-market economy. Written with conceptual clarity, academic rigor, and fresh insights, this work makes a significant contribution to public theology."

Hak Joon Lee, Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics, Fuller Theological Seminary

"The Problem and Promise of Freedom argues persuasively that the church must resist the idols of the liberal tradition. Félix-Jäger creates a distinctively Pentecostal public theology that combats the pervasive free-market ideology in the church with a counternarrative of abundance. The outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost serves as the unexpected biblical foundation for crafting a public theology of renewal that elevates hospitality, generosity, grace, and social responsibility."

Wolfgang Vondey, professor of Christian theology and Pentecostal studies, University of Birmingham

"The Problem and Promise of Freedom reclaims and redeems the narrative of freedom in light of covenant, rather than culture. Steven Félix-Jäger elaborates on the conceptions of liberty that have infiltrated the church in one of the most succinct and accessible summations available. Utilizing powerful biblical imagery, he highlights the contemporary challenge confronting public theology: discerning true worship and counterfeit worship as manifested in our economic and social lives. This contribution speaks directly to all who aspire to live as 'dual citizens,' residents of the kingdom and the world, whilst protecting the integrity of our heavenly allegiance."

Christopher Parkes, general manager and executive dean, Hillsong College, Australia