The Problem and Promise of Freedom
- Theology
- Ethics, Culture & Social Issues
- Publisher: Baker Academic (Baker Publishing Group)
- Published: 2025
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Publisher's Description
Jesus calls us to make disciples of all the nations. Many Christians believe this means enlisting soldiers in a culture war. But putting faith in the service of politics risks remaking God in our own image. How can the church help bring God's kingdom to earth without relying on the political structures of this world? Critiquing our idolization of the values of classical Western liberalism, Steven Félix-Jäger seeks a renewal of the church's public witness. He points out the pitfalls that stem from our obsession with individual freedom--from the prosperity gospel to Christian nationalism to conformity with secular progressivism. True freedom is not about individual liberty or free market economics but about flourishing in covenant with God. Félix-Jäger offers a public theology that challenges the church to be a holy, loving, and generous witness to a world bound by visions of self-absorbed autonomy and materialism. Inspired by Jubilee and Pentecost, he ultimately constructs an alternative model for public witness rooted in the abundance of the Spirit. The Problem and Promise of Freedom not only serves as an indispensable resource for students of religion and society but also offers urgent and clear-sighted witness to the church today.
Endorsements (5)
“The concept of ‘freedom’—particularly for those in the Western world—is fraught with misunderstanding, misapplication, and misappropriation. Especially for the Christian. Too often, we see our freedom in Christ as a kind of libertine Americanism where we can do whatever we want under the banner of empire. Thankfully, Steven Félix-Jäger has offered us a substantive alternative. To be free, it seems, is to be submitted to Christ. And this book paves a way forward to understand how that is more about freedom than anything a nation could ever construct on its own.”
“The Problem and Promise of Freedom reclaims and redeems the narrative of freedom in light of covenant, rather than culture. Steven Félix-Jäger elaborates on the conceptions of liberty that have infiltrated the church in one of the most succinct and accessible summations available. Utilizing powerful biblical imagery, he highlights the contemporary challenge confronting public theology: discerning true worship and counterfeit worship as manifested in our economic and social lives. This contribution speaks directly to all who aspire to live as ‘dual citizens,’ residents of the kingdom and the world, while protecting the integrity of our heavenly allegiance.”
“Steven Félix-Jäger has crafted a robust theology of the responsible church. His book presents a church that carefully asks what is going on in the wider culture and responds to the salient issues of the day from its fidelity to covenantal freedom, proclaiming God’s vision of shalom, and embodying a new form of public witness. The responsible church lives out a public theology that is rooted in God’s covenant of abundance. Félix-Jäger’s brilliant book is both a thesis and a manual for churches willing to be ‘responsible’ in today’s controversial Western societies.”
“This book rejects conservative Christianity’s culture-war stance against secular liberalism and instead advances a vibrant Pentecostal public theology of renewal and abundance. Rooted in the biblical themes of covenant, jubilee, and Pentecost (interpreted as a cosmic jubilee), this book presents a constructive theological alternative to secular liberal ideologies of freedom and the free-market economy. Written with conceptual clarity, academic rigor, and fresh insights, this work makes a significant contribution to public theology.”
“The Problem and Promise of Freedom argues persuasively that the church must resist the idols of the liberal tradition. Félix-Jäger creates a distinctively Pentecostal public theology that combats the pervasive free-market ideology in the church with a counternarrative of abundance. The outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost serves as the unexpected biblical foundation for crafting a public theology of renewal that elevates hospitality, generosity, grace, and social responsibility.”
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