Abstract

Conservative Christians tend to file politics, authority, power and the state as topics of study under hamartology. For them, politics is a consequence of the fall, and any authority pattern in the socio-political arena was not part of the original creation. In this work, the author argues to the contrary for the possibility of a created political life without sin. Sinful politics of this world is seen as distorted politics after the fall. Despite its corruption, nevertheless, we can maintain a future hope for the redemption of sinful politics. ;This work heavily relies on the works of the Dutch Neo-Calvinists--Abraham Kuyper, Herman Bavinck, and Herman Dooyeweerd--and their intellectual heirs of both North America and Europe. Their positive view of politics and active political engagement are partly the effect of the Reformational viewpoint that politics is a "pre-lapsarian phenomenon" rather than an "epi-phenomenon of sin." In this perspective, politics can take three different forms: politics without sin, politics within sin, and politics beyond sin. And at the same time, politics has its ontological basis in the Garden, is here and now in this world, and will be in the New Jerusalem after the Last Day. ;The main body of this work discusses the following hypotheses: Politics is a part of the creational order. It is the human response to the divine cultural mandate. Human beings as God's image are political agents in the divine-human, human-to-human, and human-nature relationships. The power of sin has permeated into political agents and political institutions. This is the sinful distortion of politics. The state has a paradoxical nature, as is represented by the biblical symbols of the "magistrate" and the "beast." The cause of this paradox can be traced to "the principalities and the powers." These spiritual beings influence political agents and political institutions. Christ Jesus was a political man who has opened the possibility of redeeming politics based on servanthood and loving kindness. Christ's second coming will perfectly redeem politics. After the Last Day there will be perfect reorganization of politics