142 - Faith, Power and Politics: Political Ministry in Mainline Churches

Faith, Power and Politics: Political Ministry in Mainline Churches
By Audrey R. Chapman
New York, Pilgrim, 1991. 240 pp. $15.95.

This book should be read as much for one's soul as for one's mind. A political scientist by training, Chapman writes as a bruised church bureaucrat: disappointed by the irrelevance of "theology and Scripture in the day-to-day operations" of a denomination, disturbed by the "disparity between the church's glib pronouncements" and its ability to act upon them, "appalled by the unstrategic way" in which the church goes about its political ministry. Chapman's is a voice we need to hear to stay honest with ourselves.

In tone, this book is more analytical than it is angry; therein sits its strength. Chapman is most conversant with the amplitude of literature emerging concerning the malaise of mainline Protestantism. She effectively marshals that data to give respectability to her argument.

Chapman's thesis is this: "Political ministry consists of dialectical initiatives in which a community grounds its mission to the world in its own identity and beliefs, incarnates its vision of God's peace and justice in its own life and institutions, and attempts to transform the world in the image of God's kingdom." The final chapter is particularly interesting, for here the author spells out her radical model for the church, a model more reflective of the peace church tradition than the mainline tradition.

In the end, Chapman spoke more effectively to my heart than to my head. As a pastor, I found the insights of this political scientist to be less resourceful and convincing than those of Glenn Tinder or Robert Booth Fowler.

William G. Enright
Second Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, Ind.