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Reflections on Faith and Politics

Part 1, Between Nihilism and Idolatry

  • Humans are inherently religious and worshipping creatures, seeking ultimate concerns that imbue life with purpose and meaning.
  • Sinful and broken human nature leads to the co-option of the sacred to justify self-interests, nationalistic ideologies, and group superiority over others.
  • Idolatry, where God is used to legitimize personal agendas, is presented as the default and perpetual state, supported by scriptural examples.
  • The pervasive idolatry tempts many to reject religion from public life, seeking a purely secular politics based on humanistic ideals.
  • However, removing the sacred from public life leads to nihilism, characterized by a lack of meaning, purpose, and existential desolation.
  • Nihilism creates a hunger for meaning, making individuals more vulnerable to ideological radicalization and its associated temptations toward violence.
  • The Christian political witness is characterized as a navigation between idolatry (the default state of self-interested worship) and nihilism (the void created by removing the sacred). http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2025/10/reflections-on-faith-and-politics-part.html