God's Federal Republic: Reconstructing Our Governing Symbol

Biblical religion is driven by a longing for Gods ultimate order of justice and peace. Most of this longing is steeped in the patriarchal symbols of kingship monarchs lords fathers and princes. This symbolism came to bind European churches to the legitimation of monarchies and empires for over a millennium. The American and now global experiment separated the churches with their kingdom language from government dedicated to democratic republican and federal constitutional order. Religious efforts to guide and critique government have subsequently suffered from political irrelevance or theocratic nationalism. Everett lifts up the biblical and classical origins of our present republican experiment to construct a theological position and religious symbolism that can imaginatively engage our present public life with a contemporary language permeated with a transcendent vision.