ABSTRACT

This chapter briefly focuses on the historical and theological dimensions of the ambivalent relationship of Christian faith to democracy, highlighting its negative and positive sides in each case. It discusses Christian involvement in the notion of a Global Ethic and the potential which offers as a broker between the cluster of ideals at the heart of democratic vision and the roles open to religious and other communities as agencies of civil society in a pluralist context. The chapter shows that, after a long period of dominance in public affairs, secularity must come to realize its own limitations and boundaries, and that this too has profound implications for democratic government. From a Christian theological perspective, democracy is valued, measured and judged in relation to the key concept of the kingdom of God. However, this concept in Christian social ethics has proved highly elastic and is also open to a wide variety of interpretations.