Political Engagement as Biblical Mandate. Paul D. Hanson

through participation in the Eucharist and where we hear anew the Word that directs our lives. We can formulate this first stage of our hermeneutic thus: The starting point of authentic Christian political reflection and action is worship, for there it is that we experience the living God awakening our conscience, kindling our compassion, and directing our actions on behalf of justice and advocacy for the suffering and the poor. Lest we be tempted into seeing the Church as just one more social action movement, we can restate the first step in our theo-political hermeneutic thus: worship is the most political thing the community of faith does.

      Secondly, it stands to reason that we must be adequately tutored in our biblical and confessional traditions to be informed and reliable contributors to the public forum of the bearing of our scriptural legacy on contemporary realities. It may be helpful to note that on these first two levels, the communitarian position can contribute enormously to clarification of the convictions and moral principles to which the faith community must bear witness if it is to remain faithful to its prophetic calling. For as Stanley Hauerwas has emphasized repeatedly, to adopt the latitudinarianism of liberals like John Rawls dulls both the specific message of the Gospel to world affairs and threatens to cut off the ambassadors of the Gospel from the source of their passion for justice and mercy, the God who in Christ stands in solidarity with every individual impoverished by corrupt economic structures and oppressed by tyrannical political authorities.