Defining the Debate in Political Theology

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the contours and dividing lines of the debate in Anglophone Christian political theology, the definitions of which (as we shall see) are contentious, so that the Council’s teachings on church-state relations can be located in terms of that debate. Once it is determined which views in that debate are most like the Council’s teachings, it becomes possible to see whether the criticisms aimed at those views can also be applied to the Council, thus enabling us to assess the adequacy of its teachings in subsequent chapters.