I bought the book The Myth of a Christian Nation after seeing the author Gregory A. Boyd on PBS. Do I sound smart and sophisticated after disclosing the fact that I at times watch PBS? During his interview on PBS, I was impressed by his knowledge and perspective and though the book was worth the read and I was glad that I did. It is one of those books I read expecting to agree with most of it and for the most part, I did. Boyd engages this controversial topic on many levels including the destructive intertwining of the politics and the church. Boyd sees an important distinction between the Kingdom of God with the Kingdoms of the World, one in which the North American Church has too often interwoven together. Using history (distant and recent) as well as theological arguments he makes a case for the separation of the two and the dangers of entangling them.

Instead of getting into specifics, I would just make a general comment that I think the concept of the Kingdom of God is intriguing. Just the discussion on how much of our theology (eschatology, ecclesiology, etc.) feeds in and out of our view of what the Kingdom of God is and isn’t, is worth pursuing. My interest in this topic was intensified this last week after taking a class on the Gospel of Matthew and spending, as Matthew does, a lot of time talking about the Kingdom of God and what it is and isn’t.

Although I have some issues with Boyd’s conclusions, especially his views on passivism (that is a topic for a whole other day), the book is well worth the time. This is especially true if you have been working though the concept of the Church’s role in government and issues related to it. If nothing else, this book will get conversation going.