Love, Life and Politics: Comparing Lutheran and Orthodox Political Theologies

In this essay, I want to engage Luther’s political theology by engaging Michael Laffin’s recent book, The Promise of Martin Luther’s Political Theology. I am fully aware of the debates around Luther’s political theology and realize that Laffin’s is only one interpretation, but it is a very nuanced interpretation that offers compelling arguments. I then want to illustrate affinities between Laffin’s interpretation of Luther and my own Orthodox political theology based on the realism of divinehuman communion, or theosis. I then want to end by relating this comparison to what is arguably one of the most pressing questions of Christian political theology – the Christian’s relation to political liberalism.